A lonely Yorkshire schoolteacher, Jean Travers (Vanessa Redgrave), hosts a dinner party for her friends at her cottage in Wetherby. A stranger, John Morgan (Tim McInnerny), arrives at the party with Marcia and Stanley Pilborough (Judi Dench and Ian Holm). Unexpectedly, he returns the next day and suddenly commits suicide in front of Jean. A policeman arrives to investigate the mysterious death, while Jean’s mind turns back to memories of a passionate love affair with tragic consequences earlier in her life. In a novel and intriguing approach to storytelling, director David Hare has created an engaging mystery and human drama that ostensibly focuses on an innocent dinner party, but is really about something else.