James Stevens, a meticulous and emotionally repressed man, is butler to Lord Darlington. His master is one of a number of misguided aristocratic diplomats who are trying to cultivate ties with the Nazi cause in post-WWI Britain. But Stevens's world of manners and decorum in the household he maintains is tested by the arrival of a new housekeeper, Miss Kenton, a high-spirited, strong-minded young woman who watches the goings-on upstairs with horror. Despite her apprehensions, she and Stevens gradually fall in love, though neither will admit it, and only give vent to their charged feelings via fierce arguments. Unfortunately, loyalty to his master causes Stevens to reject the delicate advances of Miss Kenton who eventually marries and moves away.
As the film opens in the 1950s, Stevens, now in the employ of a new master, reviews a lifetime of service at Darlington Hall. Realising his past mistakes and the wasted opportunities in his life, he contacts Miss Kenton in the hope of bringing her back to the house, and thus once more into his life.
A story of misguided loyalty, pride, and unrequited love. The tragedy of a man who pays the terrible price of denying his own feelings.
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