1934. Seventeen-year-old Cassandra (ROMOLA GARAI) lives in a dilapidated castle in Suffolk with her eccentric family. Her father, Mortmain (BILL NIGHY), is a reclusive writer who has been suffering from writer's block ever since the publication of his highly-acclaimed debut novel twenty years previously. His wife died some years ago and Mortmain is now married to Topaz, a beautiful and bohemian former artists' model several years younger than him. Cassandra has a younger brother, Thomas (JOE SOWERBUTTS), and an older sister, Rose (ROSE BYRNE), the beauty of the family who is desperate to escape their impoverished circumstances. Lastly there is Stephen (HENRY CAVILL), who works for the family (now unpaid) but is more like a sibling. Stephen adores Cassandra but, despite his good looks, she is not in love with him.
The family is thrown into crisis when Mortmain's royalty statement - their financial lifeline - arrives with no payment due. Another letter informs them that their benevolent landlord, Sir William Cotton, has died and that the two year rent arrears are now due. Mortmain hides from the crisis, idling in his study. Unlike her father, Cassandra takes refuge in writing. She starts a diary, wittily re-interpreting the events that follow in an attempt to capture the life she wishes she could lead.
When Sir William's heir to the estate and castle arrive from America with his family, it is as if Rose's prayers have been answered - he could be her ticket out of poverty. The indomitable Mrs Cotton (SINEAD CUSACK) has two sons - Simon (HENRY THOMAS), the eldest, is more academic than his tougher younger brother, Neil (MARC BLUCAS). For Cassandra and Rose, socialising with the Cottons is a heady taste of another world and even Mortmain is flattered by Mrs Cotton's interest in him.
One evening while the two families are dining together at the castle, Cassandra takes Neil swimming in the castle moat in order to allow Simon the perfect opportunity to propose to Rose. Everyone is delighted at the engagement, apart from Neil. Rose is whisked to London in preparation for her wedding.
On Midsummer's day, Simon visits the castle alone. He and Cassandra spend a magical evening together and as they dance, Simon impulsively kisses her. He means nothing by it, but she is mortified - she is in love with her sister's fiancé. On her birthday a few days later, Stephen and Cassandra share a passionate embrace but Cassandra refuses to give in to her burgeoning desires because she knows she does not love him. Confused by her emotions, Cassandra rushes to London to confront Rose who tearfully admits she is not in love with Simon. However, she insists that she will go through with the wedding for all of their sakes.
Cassandra refuses to stay with Rose and spends a lonely night waiting in a café for the first train home. She turns to Stephen, but admits to him that she is in love with Simon. She is no longer the child who tries to hold off the pain of growing up by re-writing life in her diary. On her return to the castle, Cassandra rows with Mortmain about his creative block and emotional reserve which has distanced everyone he has loved - his first wife, Topaz, now living in London, and his children. He lashes out at her but is then filled with remorse. They reconcile. Cassandra unknowingly takes on the role of her mother as she quietly sits beside Mortmain until he finally begins to write.
But their solitude is broken when Simon storms into the house with some devastating news - Rose has left him. A telegram alerts them to Rose's whereabouts and Simon and Cassandra set off find her at the seaside hotel. But what awaits them shocks both Cassandra and Simon - she is there with Neil.
It is Stephen who brought them together for, as he reveals to Cassandra on Rose and Neil's wedding day, he saw them secretly kiss soon after their first meeting and, after his last conversation with Cassandra, decided to tell Neil everything. Blissfully married, Rose and Neil leave for America. Simon hints to Cassandra that they could have a future together but she is now honest enough to know that she shouldn't take him up on it. She intends to love and be loved in her own right, without reservation. -- © Samuel Goldwyn Films/IDP Films
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