A rule bound head butler's world of manners and decorum in the household he maintains is tested by the arrival of a housekeeper who falls in love with him in post-WWI Britain. The possibility of romance and his master's cultivation of ties with the Nazi cause challenge his carefully maintained veneer of servitude.

Subtle elegance in this bittersweet story between James Stevens played by Anthony Hopkins and Lord Darlington played by James Fox. A very good and classy movie!