The world Charles Ryder once knew — Oxford afternoons, summer at Brideshead, the careless beauty of youth — has vanished. Years have passed, and the country itself now lives under the shadow of conflict. Charles is no longer the young man who first entered Brideshead in wonder and delight. He is an army officer now, older, more sober, carrying memories that seem to belong to another lifetime. And then, unexpectedly, he finds himself returning.