The wife's affair and a death in the family hasten the demise of an upper-class English marriage.
We see the detritus of an abandoned camp in South America and a main character's hallucination. Then, the story begins. Tony and Brenda Last, lord and lady, live on his enormous estate with their young son. Tony's not much for parties, and Brenda joins London society, on the arm of a penniless man, John Beaver, a hanger-on at Tony's club. John is encouraged by his entrepreneurial mother, Mrs. Beaver, who sees a quid in Tony and Brenda. Brenda and John become lovers, Brenda spends more and more time in London, and Tony's without a clue. Then, bringing things to a head are tragedy, law suits, greed, and what should be a few-months' expedition to Brazil. We are each of us merely a handful of dust.—<[email protected]>
In the 1930s at the estate Hetton Abbey, a relic of Victorian Gothic architecture, a very upstanding Brit Tony Last (James Wilby) maintains the traditional image of his class and heritage by his marriage to wife Brenda Last (Kristin Scott Thomas) and their son John. When one of his lower-class friends John Beaver (Rupert Graves) invites himself for the weekend, Tony and Brenda put on a good face and accept him as he is well-connected, albeit without real wealth. Beaver is a mammas boy and his mom Mrs. Beaver (Judi Dench), who makes money in real estate rentals, sees Brenda Last as a positive revenue stream. Beaver and Brenda begin an affair with clueless Tony paying for an apartment in the city that Mrs. Beaver rents to the adulterous wife. When son John is accidentally killed, Brenda asks for a divorce, and chivalrous Tony, attempting to prevent Brenda from the shame of the legal actions, makes plans with private detectives to be caught with another woman so Brenda can have proper legal grounds to proceed. When Brendas lawyer comes forward to ask for 40 times the initial settlement, Tony realizes he will have to sell Hetton Abbey, something he is not willing to do. Tony calls off the divorce, leaving Brenda with nothing and heads to Brazil on a scientific expedition, but falls ill and is saved by an old jungle recluse named Mr. Todd (Alec Guinness) who agrees to nurse Tony back to health on the condition that the displaced English gentleman read the entire canon of Dickens to him.
