Lady Susan Vernon has arrived at the country house of Charles and Catherine Vernon, her brother- and sister-in-law. Known to many as an unconventional woman, Lady Susan uses her charm and beauty to her own advantage, and always to the detriment of unsuspecting men. When her daughter Frederica arrives, disrupting Lady Susan’s endeavors, the complex play of romantic, familial, and purely selfish interests that ensues threatens the moral and social foundations of English aristocratic life.