Restoration

Set in 18th-century England: the foppish and cold-blooded Lord Are is forced by poverty into an unwanted marriage with the daughter of a wealthy mineowner, and they proceed to detest one another. The second plot sees the guileless footman Bob Hedges bring home a new wife, Rose, who is the daughter of a freed slave. One morning, Lord Are commits a bizarre and fatal crime over his breakfast toast. He persuades the dazed Bob that it is in fact Bob who is responsible for the crime. But a battle ensues between the justice-hungry Rose and the fortified privilege of the ruling classes.