A heartbreaking romantic epic, this adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's classic novel tells an evocative story of forbidden love and the loss of innocence in Oxford, 1925. The unworldly undergraduate Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode) is befriended by the flamboyant and aristocratic Sebastian Flyte (Ben Whishaw), son of Lord and Lady Marchmain (Michael Gambon and Academy Award Winner Emma Thompson), and is thrilled by an invitation to Brideshead, the Marchmains' magnificent ancestral home. Beguiled by his surroundings, Charles is entranced by the opulent house and the glamorous world of this eccentric family. While Lord Marchmain lives in Venice with his mistress, Lady Marchmain runs the house, the failure of her marriage redoubling the fierce Catholic faith imposed on her children as Sebastian and the beautiful Julia (Hayley Atwell). As Charles' infatuation moves from the provocative Sebastian to the sophisticated Julia, it is a faith with which he finds himself increasingly at odds.