In the early eighteenth century, Sir Chauncey Savage [Richard E. Grant] and Lady Savage [Claire Foy] are an impoverished couple living in a fading Yorkshire mansion with their daughter Fanny Savage [Kíla Lord Cassidy]. A looming crisis arrives when the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire announce they must stay with the Savages for a spell, driven by a massive pox outbreak and the Jacobite uprising that makes their usual host, Lord Vernon, unsafe. In a bid to weather the disruption, the family begins selling heirlooms and piling up debt, hoping to cushion the temporary intrusion while preserving some semblance of dignity.
Meanwhile, Reginald Halifax [Jack Farthing] and chambermaid Dorothy Neville hatch a secret plan to end the Savages’ marriage for their own gain, turning their private scheming into a dangerous game of leverage. The household’s routine is further unsettled by the arrival of two actors in masterful deception: Darby [Miles Jupp] and Leslie [Tom Godwin], two stablemen hired to pose as footmen for a rehearsal dinner, a ruse that exposes how fragile the Savages’ world really is. A doctor’s stern admonition—avoiding red meat and wine due to Chauncey’s inflammatory arthritis and gout—becomes another battleground, as Chauncey stubbornly defies medical orders, trying to hold onto comfort even as physical pain mounts.
The pressure mounts as Lady Savage continues to sell family treasures, including her grandmother’s priceless diamond ring, to fund the preparations. Invitations to the dinner are declined by nearly every guest, with fear of the pox cited as the reason, though the Savages fear it’s really Sir Chauncey’s low birth that keeps people away. In the garden, Leslie overhears Dorothy and Reginald’s plotting, and Reginald swiftly drives him off, tightening the noose around the couple’s fragile domestic life. While a portrait is being painted, Chauncey unleashes his anger at his staff, collapses, and a doctor administers laudanum and leeches, a scene that underscores how far his pride has driven him into illness and dependence. The doctor is [Roger Ashton-Griffiths], a reminder of the ever-present authority that intrudes on their affairs.
That night, Chauncey discovers his wife in an intimate moment with Reginald, sparking a duel between Chauncey and his rival. To serve as his second, Chauncey asks Mr. Bennett [Richard McCabe], which in turn compels him to extend invitations to the Bennetts—an irony not lost on anyone. Lady Savage tries to buy Reginald’s mercy with payment, but Reginald refuses; instead, Mr. Bennett arranges a bribe to have Reginald kill Chauncey, a plan that reveals how far money and manipulation can travel in a collapsing household. The duel ends with Chauncey wounded in the arm and Reginald shot dead, and the mood shifts from defiant bravado to the grim reality of ruin.
On the eve of the dinner, Chauncey’s wound worsens into gangrene, and debt collector Mr. Black [Erin Battle] arrives to arrest him. Yet even the threat of imprisonment cannot derail the dinner’s preparations, as Chauncey promotes Darby to valet and hires two forest vagrants—who turn out to be Jacobites—as make-do footmen. Fanny, watching a lunar eclipse with wonder, becomes a sobering counterpoint to the surrounding chaos, while Dorothy poisons Fanny’s pet mice, a cruel act that foreshadows the family’s unraveling. The doctor’s earlier warnings echo more loudly now, as Chauncey’s condition deteriorates and an amputation becomes unavoidable.
The grand dinner proceeds to a silent, tense dawn, with no sign of the Devonshires. A messenger appears at the door bearing news from the Duke and Duchess: they have chosen to stay with Lord Vernon after all. The revelation completes the Savages’ descent into financial and social ruin: Chauncey is arrested and sent to a debtors’ prison, while the Devonshire influence drifts away, leaving behind a house that can no longer sustain itself. In the end, the Savages’ world collapses under the weight of debt, deception, and the cold arithmetic of fortune, leaving only memories of a grand illusion that could not outlast the era’s changing tides.
Throughout the tale, the cast—Jack Farthing as Reginald Halifax, Kíla Lord Cassidy as Fanny Savage, Claire Foy as Lady Savage, Miles Jupp as Darby, Tom Godwin as Leslie, Sebastian Armesto as Hans, Dominic Charman as Nobleman, Phill Drew as Peasant 2, Sven Ironside as Player 1, James Nicholson as Messenger, Roger Ashton-Griffiths as Dr. Hemmings, Erin Battle as Mrs. Black, Shiona Brown as Mrs. Loughton, Richard McCabe as Mr. Bennett, Vicki Pepperdine as Mrs. Bennett, and Douglas? in other roles, all weave a precise, interlocking web of intentions and consequences that keep the central family drama in motion—from missteps and betrayals to a final reckoning that befalls those who chase status at the cost of security.
