Episode list

In 1937, the extended Cazalet family get together for their annual six week summer holiday at the family seat, Home Place, in Sussex. Patriarch Wiiliam Cazalet, affectionately called The Brig, travels down from London to be with his wife Duchy, his three sons Edward, Hugh and Rupert, his daughter Rachel and their wives, children and friends. The Brig and sons Hugh and Edward invite the younger Rupert to join the family timber firm but he declines, preferring to concentrate on his painting. Rupert is married to Zoe and has two children from his first marriage. His teenage daughter Clary hates Zoe to no end. Edward meanwhile is a philanderer bedding any woman who is willing. His interest in his teenage daughter is anything but fatherly. Hugh and his wife Sybil are about to have a child to join their teenage daughter Polly. In the summer of 1938, they all go to the south of France for their holiday but war is in the air. Hitler's expansion across Europe and his designs on Czechoslovakia seem to make war inevitable. They rejoice with the rest of the country when Prime Minister Chamberlain returns from Munich declaring "peace in our time." A year later however, all has changed.

It's summer 1939 and war is now seen as inevitable. Children are being sent from London to the safety of the countryside. Edward and Diana Macintosh continue their affair but realize it will be more difficult for them to see each other. His wife Viola wants their 16 year-old daughter Louise to learn to type and cook but she wants to be an actress. They compromise and Louise is soon in London sharing digs with a new friend, Stella. Edward gets a desk job in the RAF and Rupert decides to join the navy. He is thrilled to learn that Zoe is once again pregnant. Rachel's lover volunteers to be an ambulance driver meaning Rachel will have to visit her in London. Hugh still suffers from the wounds he received in the First war and remains with his father at the family firm. Tonbridge the chauffeur learns that his wife is living with another man and his son is not his own. Louise sees her father at the theater with Diana Mackintosh and realizes he has a mistress. By the summer of 1940, the Nazis have rolled across Western Europe and the BEF is evacuated at Dunkirk. The family receives disconcerting news about Rupert.

Zoe gives birth to a baby girl and after a while learns that Rupert has been listed as missing in action. Louise comes home from drama school in trousers leading to a major row with her mother. Louise attends a dinner party hosted by her mother's friend Hermione where she meets Michael Hadleigh, a successful painter and naval officer considerably older than herself. Sybil's ulcer seems to be getting worse and is hospitalized for an operation where they find a cancerous tumor. Rachel spends time with her good friend Sid and they finally become lovers. Edward beds a pretty young WAF under his command putting off a planned meeting with Diana Macintosh. Villy's nephew Christopher comes to stay at Home Place after his school is closed. He's an avid pacifist and with his 18th birthday approaching, has already decided he will not fight.

At Villy and Duchy's urging, Zoe agrees to visit some of the RAF officers at a nearby hospital. There she meets Roddy who was badly burned in a crash. Louise continues to see Michael Hadleigh but after a dinner with her father and an overnight stay at the London house, Edward again tries to molest her. She fights him off but also tells him about seeing him with Diana Macintosh at the theater. Clary has written General de Gaulle about her father but six weeks have passed and she has yet to receive an answer. Her brother Nev runs away from his boarding school but is taken in by a kindly woman who manages to contact Edward. Sybil is released from hospital but she is clearly not well. Polly only becomes aware of the seriousness of her mother's condition when she overhears a conversation. Christopher turns 18 and refuses to enlist. He soon finds himself working but homeless when his landlord throws him out.

It's now the fall of 1941. Christopher is hospitalized in a psychiatric institution and is uncommunicative. He's had a complete breakdown and his overbearing father is unsympathetic. He undergoes electric shock treatment and returns to Home Place. Louise wins a role in a play at Stratford and continues her relationship with Michael Hadleigh. He spends a night at Home Place and asks her to marry him. Diana Macintosh tells Edward she is pregnant and there'll be no fooling her husband into thinking it's his this time around. Edward's solution is for her to have an abortion. Zoe visits Roddy who has had two operations and is improving. She obviously cares for him a great deal. Clary finally gets news of her father.