Behind their neat facades of Victorian propriety, Anthony Trollope's characters are bursting with life. A flirtatious vicar, two squabbling sisters, an ingénue and her meddling aunt... these are the friends and relations who surround Louis and Emily Trevalyan in the first blissful year of their married life. But things take a darker turn when the roguish Colonel Osborne (Bill Nighy) takes an interest in Emily, and, flattered by the resulting gossip, fans the flames of Louis's jealousy.

In an atmosphere thick with romance and rumor, Louis finds it all too easy to accuse his wife and force her from the house along with their young son. Obsessed with the imagined seduction, he descends into darkness, determined to destroy everything he loves.