Plot: Father Ferris' successful packaging business earns his family a luxurious life on a splendid country estate. However, an incurable disease daily diminishes him, then kills him. In complex scenes from several points in time, we observe his three kids forced to grow up fatherless, Jack explicitly being appointed to step into his father's shoes. When his mother decides to marry Clive Lamis, Jack resents and resists, but is too young, so finally moves out and proves himself a business talent worthy of his father. At Jack's 21st birthday, his mother finally gets him to attend a grand garden party in his honor, before he leaves for China indefinitely. Yet things work out surprisingly, as family ties entangle them still.
Alternative Plot: Family tensions rise when a wealthy Englishwoman (Jennifer Ehle) decides to remarry following the death of her husband (Danny Huston).
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