We That Are Left

Ellinghurst Castle, one of England's fine old residences, was built by Jeremiah Melville as a folly complete with turrets, a moat, and a drawbridge. Over a 300-year period, it was lovingly maintained and embellished by successive generations of Melvilles until World War I upset the natural order of things. With the loss of son and heir Theo, his mother, Eleanor, abandons her home and family to seek comfort from a succession of crank spiritualists. It then falls to her daughters to carry on the Melville legacy. But younger daughter Jessica resents the lost opportunities to find a husband that a formal coming-out season would have provided, while her sister, Phyllis, after serving as a battlefield nurse, wants to be free from convention and pursue a career in archaeology. Of the few remaining males in the family circle, it may be Oscar Greenwood, Eleanor's godson, who can save the castle for which he holds almost as much affection as he does for Phyllis.