By 1939, the sunlit days of childish games are over as the shadows of war cloud the lives of an English family. At the family home, the windows are blacked out, food is scarce, and a new generation of Cazalets take up the story.

It is the 1950s and as the Cazalets beloved matriarch, the Duchy, passes away, she takes with her the last remnants of a world of great houses and servants, of class and tradition in which the Cazalets have thrived. Louise, now divorced, becomes entangled in a painful affair, while Polly and Clary must balance marriage and motherhood with their own