 Autumn, 1913: on the eve of the Great War, a small party of lords and ladies gather at the Hertfordshire estate of Sir Randolph Nettleby. A code of propriety governs all: dress, breakfast, relations with the estate s peasants, courtship, shooting, adultery. Lionel Stephens, who is courting Sir Randolph s daughter, gets into a shooting competition with Lord Gilbert Hartlip; Lord Gilbert s wife carries on discreet affairs; a pamphleteer circles the estate calling for no more killing, and Sir Robert s grandson hopes to protect a wild duck he s befriended. A way of life is ending: Lord Gilbert s violation of the gentlemen s code suggests internal rot as the real world presses in.