平民小伙子查尔斯·莱德(马修·古迪 Matthew Goode 饰)怀着一腔梦想进入牛津大学,不久便结识了引人注目的塞巴斯蒂安·弗莱特(本·卫肖 Ben Whishaw 饰),并和他成为好友。塞巴斯蒂安英俊得惊人,又出身豪门,生性满怀敏感和忧愁,他带着查尔斯进入自家豪宅——布赖兹赫德庄园,介绍他认识自己的家人,查尔斯很快迷恋上其姐茱丽叶(海莉·阿特维尔 Hayley Atwell 饰),但茱丽叶迫于母亲压力和天主教徒雷克斯(Jonathan Cake 饰)订婚,令查尔斯恋情无果,而塞巴斯蒂安对查尔斯的感情也只能止于暧昧。十年光阴过去,查尔斯已经是知名画家,在渡轮上偶遇茱丽叶,试图重续旧情再度失败,又得知塞巴斯蒂安已经远走国外。再度回到布赖兹赫德庄园,查尔斯已经是一名军官,大宅已经在战争中彻底破败……WWII. Charles Ryder, in his civilian life, rose out of his middle class London background, which includes being an atheist and having a distant relationship with his eccentric father, to become an up and coming artist. He is currently an army officer, who is stationed at a makeshift camp set up at Brideshead estate before imminently getting shipped into battle. The locale, which is not unfamiliar to him, makes him reminisce about what ended up being his doomed relationship with Brideshead's owners, the Flytes, an ostentatiously wealthy family. Charles first met Sebastian Flyte when they both were students at Oxford, where Sebastian surprisingly welcomed Charles into his circle of equally wealthy, somewhat stuck up and flamboyant friends. Charles ended up getting caught up in Sebastian's family struggles, where Sebastian used excessive alcohol to deal with the pain resulting from his family relationships. Although Charles and Sebastian were more than just friends, Charles ultimately fell in love with Sebastian's sister, Julia Flyte. But the biggest obstacle to Charles being intimately involved with anyone in the Flyte family was the family matriarch, Lady Marchmain, a strict and devout Catholic who ruled the family with that adherence to a strict Catholic lifestyle. That was despite her and Lord Marchmain's own marriage being in name only, as he lived in Venice with his mistress, Cara.