Wealthy widow Maria invites long-time dinner companion Richard to spend a month at her house in Scotland. If she still likes him after a month together, they will marry. Mutual friends George, Duke of Bristol and his companion Helen decide to make it a foursome.

Writer Alfred is trapped in a loveless, unfulfilled marriage to wealthy Rita. The death of their disabled son wreaks havoc on their relationship as they struggle to find redemption for their personal failures.

Foppish, would-be playwright-critic Mr Puff invites his literary-minded associates to a production of his horrendous and nonsensical spectacular, The Spanish Armada, confident that he's written a hit.

In late 1918 Ukraine, the various armies of the Ukrainian War of Independence (the White Army, the Red Army, the Imperial German Army and Ukrainian nationalists) fight over the city of Kiev, leaving the fate of the Turbin family in ambiguity.