Dublin, 1949. The wealthy Ardmore children − Oriana, Vanessa and their brother Sitric − enjoy every luxury life has to offer in their well-off country 'set', but know the price to be paid is unquestioning obedience to Pappy − Brendan Ardmore − head of the household and the family business, the man to whom they owe everything. When Oriana agrees to marry the son of another wealthy Dublin family, Vanessa thinks she is mad. She wants to fall passionately in love with the man she will marry, and when on the night of Oriana's engagement party she meets Glenn Carey, an American soldier on a tour of duty, she is sure she has found him − but as a lowly sergeant he is beyond the pale for Pappy. For the first time in her life Vanessa will defy her parents to see the lovely American ₋ and Pappy's wrath will finally put the stability of the entire Ardmore family in danger…