 Young Judith Dunbar (Keira Knightley) is a quiet, gentle voiced teenager in the 1930s, relegated to a life at boarding school thanks to her colonial parents. Judith becomes adopted into the family of her best friend, young Loveday Carey Lewis (Poppy Gaye), after the death of her aunt and guardian, Louise Forrester (Penelope Keith). Judith falls in love with the family, their home, Nancherrow, and Loveday s older brother Edward (Paul Bettany). When war strikes, Judith (Emily Mortimer) and the Carey-Lewis family all suffer, as Judith loses her family, and Loveday (Katie Ryder Richardson) her fiance; Gus. Judith muddles through the war losing Edward and aunt Lavinia in the process. But the war draws to a close, and Judith finds new romance, and Loveday suffers the consequences of a very hard decision, as she is forced to choose between Gus whom she loves, and her husband, Walter, the father of her young boy Nathaniel.