"Based on Anthony Powell's literary opus, this miniseries centers on Brit Nicholas Jenkins (James Purefoy) who, over the course of decades, observes the upper crust's uncanny ability to maintain propriety while keeping their secrets and scandals under wraps. Tea cakes are spread with infidelity, failure, scandal and politics in this epic tale that spans from the 1920s to the '60s. John Gielgud, Miranda Richardson and Simon Russell Beale co-star."