First of a three-part dramatisation of the epic novel by Boris Pasternak. Having witnessed his father's suicide as a young boy, Yury is sent to live with his aunt, uncle and cousin Tonya in Moscow. Growing up there, Yury is captivated by a stunning young girl called Lara, not realising that Tonya has fallen in love with him. As unrest in Moscow grows and Lara's friend joins the Bolsheviks, she allows her mother's boyfriend to make love to her.

World War One rages and Yury has been sent to the front. When he is shot and wounded, he is treated by Lara and they begin to fall in love. Their affair continues up until the Russian Revolution when the Partisans capture Yury and they ride off into the unknown.

As the war ends and the civil war begins Zhivago leaves Moscow with his family. He eventually meets Lara again, and they begin a secret affair, before he is conscripted into service by Communist partisans, and Lara is forced to flee to safety.