Glorious

Michael Walton travels to present-day London to visit his cousins Walter and Oliver Page and learn about his great-aunt Anne Keyes. He probes their memories about the Keyes family and asks what happened to Anne. The conversation links the current moment to a long-buried past.

Walter begins recounting the Norfolk summer of 1939, where Anne was the eldest of the Keyes children and lived under her father's shadow. The estate, the political atmosphere, and the characters around Anne—Hector, Balcombe, and Lawrence—are introduced. The tale signals that events in the countryside will drive a larger political intrigue.

On Sir Alexander's birthday, Anne hosts a garden dinner with Hector and Lawrence, plus Balcombe arriving as a guest. The quiet government employee Balcombe is present, and the gathering foreshadows the tensions to come. The mood mixes celebration with undercurrents of political maneuvering.

During a search for a stray cat among the out-of-bounds sheds, Anne uncovers gramophone records labeled Foxtrot. They contain recordings of secret meetings and conversations that reveal Balcombe's role in storing government documents. The discovery exposes a network of influence surrounding the family.

Sir Alexander reveals that Balcombe has been storing government documents in the shed and promises to remove the records the next day during a family picnic. Anne's sense of unease grows as she considers how the records might implicate powerful people. The tension between duty and secrecy deepens.

Two weeks later, Hector is found dead from an apparent suicide, prompting speculation about Balcombe's influence over those around him. Anne questions whether Balcombe is involved, while Sir Alexander dismisses such ideas. The family fractures under the weight of political conspiracy.

During a family picnic, Anne leaves Oliver under supervision as the group walks away. The baby disappears, and Anne fears foul play, later discovering him in a lane with the pushchair. The incident sows seeds of doubt about Anne's trustworthiness.

That night Balcombe removes the records, but Anne secretly keeps two of them. The action plants the seed of a hidden struggle—the records embody the political pressure surrounding the family. Anne's secrecy deepens the rift between her and her father.

Back in London, where Parliament has been recalled, Anne listens to the first recording. It contains Hector pleading with Balcombe to stop contacting his family about his personal life. A maid's interruption causes the record to break.

On the next day, Anne gives the second recording to her friend Gilbert, who is involved in politics and appears on set. The director demands they begin shooting; soon Britain declares war on Germany, and Gilbert is found dead from an apparent suicide. The recording's message seems connected to broader politics and personal danger.

While watching her final scene with Gilbert, Anne realises the supposed flub was a message targeted at her. She travels to Norfolk to keep Aunt Elizabeth company and listens again to the second recording, recognizing Balcombe's voice discussing their plots to pressure and silence Hector. Ralph, Anne's brother, contributes a cryptic line about a covert operation nicknamed Thin Man Dancing.

Back in London, Anne plans to deliver the recording to Lawrence at a rendezvous at a suburban veterinary surgery. Lawrence is found dead in a shed filled with euthanised pets, and Anne escapes with the recording, giving it to a child to post to Churchill.

Anne is recaptured, drugged by her father, and held prisoner in Aunt Elizabeth's house near St Paul's Cathedral. Balcombe visits and shows her the second recording, explaining that their London house is used for pro-appeasement meetings chaired by Sir Alexander.

Sir Alexander reveals that he believes Britain will be destroyed unless it secures an early peace with Germany, and he says Anne is the only family member who does not share his beliefs. They deprive her of water and leave her to die, but Maud releases her and she escapes.

Back in the present day, Walter reveals that Anne died in Canada twenty years earlier and that Balcombe had manipulated him to move Oliver's pushchair into the lane. Michael and the two boys travel to the park where they meet an elderly Anne, and Michael reveals he has known the truth all along and wanted to hear it from them.