In June 1940, Diana Wentworth, portrayed by Valerie Hobson, receives a telegram informing her that her husband Michael Wentworth, a British MI6 colonel who had been working with the French Resistance, has been killed by the Nazis in France during the Second World War. She struggles to accept the news, but is helped by the family nanny Flora Robson. The nanny urges her to step into her late husband’s public role and to stand for Parliament in his seat, with steady support from Sir Ernest Foster Felix Aylmer.
Living on a rural estate in middle England, Diana considers filling several roles her husband once managed for the local community. Not everyone welcomes a woman breaking into these duties. She is pursued by a neighboring landowner, Richard Llewellyn James McKechnie, who, during a V-1 attack, kisses her and proposes marriage. The tension between duty, desire, and circumstance becomes a central thread as the war’s shadow gradually lifts.
At the end of the war, Michael is found in a prisoner-of-war camp liberated by the Russians. On the day she is to wed Richard James McKechnie, Sir Ernest phones Diana to inform her of the sudden turn in her life, and everyone must adjust to the new reality. Back home, Michael is reintroduced into a world that has moved on without him, and he begins to see Diana in a new light as an MP—not merely as his wife, but as a partner in public life.
Michael is surprised to discover that Diana has become an MP and is effectively doing his job in his absence. He asks her to stop and let him reclaim his own role, dreaming of turning back time. He wants to reclaim not only his seat but a sense of normalcy that the war disrupted. When he learns about Richard, he is less consumed by jealousy than by the prospect of losing his place in the House of Commons. He even turns to Sir Ernest for guidance, though the elder statesman suggests waiting until the general election in a few months.
The couple’s struggle strains their bond, and the nanny Flora Robson continues to try to arbitrate, keeping a steady, kind voice in the background. Diana’s conscience grows heavier as she weighs her love for Richard against her commitment to Michael and the life they built together. The tension comes to a head as Diana confronts her own loyalties, the politics of the era, and the expectations placed upon her as a woman in public life.
In the final reckoning, Diana returns to Michael in both heart and mind. The film closes with the two of them together in the House of Commons, indicating a reconciliation that respects their shared history while acknowledging the realities of postwar life. The closing image emphasizes the idea that partnership and public service can coexist, even after a year of upheaval, and that duty and affection can align in the shared space of governance.
