Opening on the eve of the First World War, set around a stately home, Cavendon Hall, its owners the aristocratic Ingham family and the Swann family who serves them.

Two entwined families: the aristocratic Inghams and the Swanns who serve them. The Earl and Countess rely on their faithful retainers Alice and Walter Swann as their young family grows up.

One stately home: Cavendon Hall, a grand imposing house nestled in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales

A society beauty: Lady Daphne Ingham is the most beautiful of the Earl's four daughters. Being presented at Court and making a glittering marriage is her destiny.

But in the summer of 1913, a devastating event changes her future forever, and threatens the Ingham name. Yet life as the families of Cavendon Hall know it - Royal Ascot, supper dances, grouse season feasts and a full servants' hall - is about to alter beyond recognition as the storm clouds of war gather.