The Edwardians

These are people, or a sample of them, who ordain the London season, glorify Ascot, make or unmake the fortune of small Continental watering-places, inspire envy, emulation, and snobbishness' Sebastian and Viola, brother and sister, are children of the English aristocracy.

Handsome and moody, at nineteen Sebastian is a duke and heir to the vast country estate, Chevron.

A deep sense of tradition and love of the English countryside tie him to his inheritance, yet he loathes the glittering cold extravagant society of which he is a part.

Viola, at sixteen, is more thoughtful, more independent: an unfashionable beauty who scorns every part of her inheritance, most particularlythat of womanhood.

It is July 1905, Chevron is once again the site of a lavish house party.

The guests include Lady Roehampton, a great beauty and seductress, and the explorer Leonard Anquetil.

It is Lady Roehampton who will initiate Sebastian in the art of love, but it is Anquetil, rough but humane, who opens for both brother and sister the gateway to another world.