This is the 1980 serialization of Nancy Mitford's books The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate - fictionalized accounts, from the 1920s to the war years of the 1940s, of the youth and love-life of a circle of English debs based on the famous Mitford sisters, Nancy, Jessica, Unity, Diana and Deborah. The central characters of the series are Linda, Louisa and Jassy Radlett, their parents Lord and Lady Alconleigh (otherwise Uncle Matt and Aunt Sadie, memorably played by Michael Aldridge and Judi Dench), the Radletts' cousin Fanny Logan (who lives with them because her mother, 'The Bolter', runs off with a variety of men) and their friend Lady Polly Hampton, daughter of a Viceroy of India. Because Polly (Rosalyn Landor) is an only child, her father's ancient titles and great estates will go to a distant Canadian cousin, Cedric Hampton (Michael Cochrane), believed to be some kind of lumberjack.