The biography of successful and respectable Edwardian businessman Roger Ackerley, who managed to conceal the existence of a secret love and the three daughters she bore, from his wife and adult son and daughter until his death.

Biography of successful, respectable Edwardian businessman Roger Ackerley, who concealed the existence of a lover and the three daughters she bore, from his family. Known to the daughters only as 'Uncle Bodger', they remained unaware he was their father until after his death. The film depicts the impact on them of their improvised upbringing - their mother was frequently absent - and the social irony of Roger's homosexual son, Joe, struggling to unburden his truth onto his reluctant, outwardly respectable father. Joe became the eminent author J. R. Ackerley on whose book, 'My Father And Myself', the film is partially based, along with 'The Secret Orchard Of Roger Ackerley' by Diana Petre, one of Roger's 'illegitimate' daughters.—Paul Ackerley