In the midst of the Hundred Years' War, the young King Henry V of England embarks on the conquest of France in 1415.
Madame Ranevskaya is a spoiled aging aristocratic lady, who returns from a trip to Paris to face the loss of her magnificent Cherry Orchard estate after a default on the mortgage. In denial, she continues living in the past, deluding herself and her family, while the beautiful cherry trees are being axed down by the re-possessor Lopakhin, her former serf, who has his own agenda.
On the eve of World War I, Ellie Dunn, her father, and her fiancé are invited to one of Hesione Hushabye's infamous dinner parties. Unfortunately, her fiancé is a scoundrel, her father's a bumbling prig, and she's actually in love with Hector, Hesione's husband. This bold mix of farce and tragedy lampoons British society as it blithely sinks towards disaster.
The most prominent citizens of a small Russian town mistake a wandering stranger for the much-feared "government inspector" whose visit they are fearfully awaiting. The stranger takes full advantage of their error.
A nostalgic reunion briefly arises when three estranged siblings spend some time together in their childhood home where their father is on his dead-bed. A glimpse of a new fellowship between the three of them.
A successful, ego-maniacal architect who has spent a lifetime bullying his wife, employees and mistresses wants to make peace as his life approaches its final act.
After Nina Leeds finds out that insanity runs in her husband's family, she has a love child with a handsome doctor and lets her husband believes the child is his.
In the second part of this adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's 1928 play, Gordon Evans grows up unaware that his "Uncle" Ned is in fact his father. Gordon's mother, Nina, grows increasingly distracted because of her deception.