Niagara Falls, 1915. When Bess Heath returns to her family home near the picturesque falls, it is to an unfamiliar scene - the elegance of the life she once knew has vanished. Her father is a broken man, jobless and losing hope, and her mother is struggling to keep the family afloat. Isabel, the lively, charismatic sister Bess has always relied on, is almost unrecognisable. Her engagement called off, she languishes in her bedroom, brooding and refusing to eat. And all the while the society Bess has always known faces its own transition ...