 Anthony Andrews and Jeremy Irons play two young men who meet at Oxford. Irons though of no family or money becomes friends with Andrews when Andrews throws up in his dorm room through an open window. He then invites Irons to dinner after Aolysius  refuses to talk to Andrews unless he is forgiven. Irons becomes involved with Andrews family which is landed gentry and Catholic in Protestant England. The story is told in flashback as Irons, now an officer in the British Army is moved with his company to an English country home that he discovers to be Brideshead, Andrews family home where Irons has a series of memories of his youth and young manhood, his loves, life, and a journey of faith and anguish.