'Only connect.' This famous command is the catalyst which brings together two very different Edwardian families - the one passionate and progressive, the other hidebound by wealth and social status - with irreversible and devastating consequences.

A dying woman's impulsive wish marks a turning point in the relationship between the cosmopolitan Schlegel sisters, Margaret and Helen, and the wealthy Wilcox family when Ruth Wilcox bequeaths her idyllic country house, Howards End, to Margaret (Emma Thompson in an Oscar-winning performance). Convinced that he is acting in the best interests of his family, the patriarchal Henry Wilcox destroys his wife's 'unofficial' will. But, as the lonely, repressed Henry falls in love with Margaret, and Helen's wilful attacks on class and convention strike at the very heart of the Wilcox family, fate decrees that Henry must pay dearly for his deceit.