Despite being in the grip of an all-consuming heroin addiction, Patrick flies from London to New York to collect his father’s ashes. Assuring his friends that he will detox during the trip, Patrick indulges in a cocktail of drugs and alcohol in an attempt to supress his past.
It’s 1967, Lacoste, and the Melroses are hosting a dinner party for their friends in their chateau. However, it is also the time when eight-year-old Patrick’s world is turned upside down after he endures a traumatic event which will cloud his life forever.
In 1990s England, we see Patrick, now thirty-one, clean and practicing law. The invitation to a high society event in the Cotswolds allows Patrick to see this decadent world through sober eyes for the first time and comes one step closer to resolving his troubled childhood.
It’s 2003 and Patrick is now forty-four and married to Mary with two sons. Patrick may be off the heroin but is struggling with substance abuse when his ill mother makes an illicit request, and the Melrose family return to London to face the future.
It’s 2005 and Patrick’s life-long wish comes true with mixed results which allows him to think about his future.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Patrick Melrose
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Elenor Melrose
Allison Williams
Marianne
Anna Madeley
Mary
Hugo Weaving
David Melrose