Charles Ryder and Lord Sebastian Flyte meet at Oxford and, despite the class gap, become close friends. Sebastian takes Charles back to Brideshead, his ancestral home, in the holidays one year where Charles meets Sebastian's sister, Julia. Back at college, Sebastian begins to drink more and more; both he and Charles drift away from the Flyte family. Charles marries but, after several re-encounters with Julia, embarks on affair with her... Based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh.