The story of the relationship between painter Dora Carrington (Dame Emma Thompson) and author Lytton Strachey (Jonathan Pryce) in a World War I England of cottages and countryside. Although platonic due to Strachey's homosexuality, the relationship was nevertheless a deep and complicated one. When Carrington did develop a more physical relationship with soldier Ralph Partridge (Steven Waddington), Strachey was able to welcome him as a friend, although Partridge remained somewhat uneasy, not so much with Strachey's sexual orientation as with the fact that he was a conscientious objector.