The Forsyte family is shown in Victorian respectability as they gather to meet June's fiance, the architect Philip Bosinney. Some years before her father Jolyon has scandalised the family by making her nanny his mistress. Jolyon's cousin Soames, an up and coming solicitor, has recently married the beautiful Irene and retains Bosinney to build a new home - "Robin Hill". Move ahead to the next generation. It's the 1920s. Soames's daughter Fleur (by the woman he marries after Irene leaves him) is madly in love with Jon,the son of Jolyon and his third wife Irene. Will Fleur find happiness as the wife of a well-connected publisher?