On a crisp autumn morning in 1903, a young woman seeks employment in a fashionable London townhouse.

It's June 1904 and Lady Marjorie is sitting for her portrait by Guthrie Scone, a Scottish aristocrat turned avant-garde painter. The new parlour maid Clemence, now called Sarah by everyone for convenience, goes to Scone's studio with some of her Ladyship's dresses. A relationship begins which could end in a major society scandal.

It is August 1904. The Bellamys and their senior servants are away on their summer holidays. The younger servants, left behind to clean the house on reduced pay, indulge in a wild evening of drinking and dressing-up.

It is May 1905. Elizabeth Bellamy, home from abroad and about to make her society debut, shocks her family and the servants by refusing to conform to custom. At the first grand ball she creates a scandal.

Elizabeth decides not to marry Angus and is captivated by a German baron visiting England at Christmas.

October 1906. During a week when Richard Bellamy is alone in the house working on a book, he finds the young under housemaid Mary crying as she lays the library fire. He learns of her secret trouble and unwisely promises to help, a step that could endanger his career.