The story follows Christopher Tietjens, a wealthy member of Edwardian England's upper class, as the country is drawn into World War One. Tietjens is at the center of a love triangle between his wife Sylvia, a treacherous socialite who is trying to destroy him, and his suffragette mistress, Valentine. The warfare Tietjens encounters as an officer in Europe is but a backdrop to a personal battle of conflicting loyalties, hidden passions and the rigid...

In nineteenth-century England, jilted by London's most eligible bachelor, Julia convinces her friend to play the role of his ideal match. Soon, Mr. Malcolm wonders whether he's found the perfect woman or the perfect hoax.