Tony Last, James Wilby is an English country gentleman whose life centers on Hetton Abbey, his ancestral home. He is blissfully content in the quiet routines of estate life, unaware of the growing discontent of his wife, Brenda Last, Kristin Scott Thomas. Brenda’s restlessness slowly pulls her toward the social climber John Beaver, [Rupert Graves](/actor/rupert-graves, and she even manages to persuade him to rent a flat in London, unaware that she uses it as a love nest.
Their eight-year-old son, John Andrew, Jackson Kyle, is tragically killed in a riding accident, and Brenda then informs Tony of the affair, requesting a divorce so she can marry Beaver. Tony is shattered, but he initially agrees, offering to provide her with £500 a year. He spends an awkward weekend with a woman hired to provide fake divorce evidence, hoping to keep the peace. Beaver and his grasping mother press Brenda to demand £2,000 per year, a sum that would force Tony to sell Hetton. This gambit is checked when the hired woman brings a child to the weekend, allowing Tony to show that adultery did not take place and he withdraws the divorce. On his return, he states that Brenda may have her divorce but without any financial support.
Without the settlement, Beaver loses interest in Brenda, and she is reduced to poverty as he and his mother depart for California. Tony then joins an expedition into the Brazilian forest in search of a supposed lost city. The expedition fails, and Tony is the last survivor. He is rescued by Mr. Todd, Alec Guinness, a settler who rules over a small, secluded community in the jungle. Todd, an illiterate man who keeps a cherished collection of Charles Dickens, has Tony read aloud to him. Tony soon realizes he is being held against his will rather than being rescued. A search party finally reaches the settlement, but Todd has drugged Tony and hidden him, telling the party that Tony has died and giving them his watch to take home. When Tony awakens, he learns that rescue may never come, and he is effectively condemned to read Dickens to his captor indefinitely.
Back in England, Tony’s death is accepted by the world he left behind; Hetton passes to his cousins who erect a memorial to his memory. Brenda, left with little options, ends up marrying Tony’s friend Jock Grant-Menzies, Pip Torrens, sealing her fate in a new, pragmatic alliance.
