When Kate (Helena Bonham-Carter) falls in love with a penniless journalist named Merton (Linus Roache), she faces an impossible choice: marry him and live in poverty or give him up to receive her inheritance. Of course, there is one unthinkable option. Kate could have Merton seduce the beautiful American heiress Millie Theale (Alison Elliott), who's dying and has no one to leave her fortune to! But in doing so, Kate risks losing what she values most, Merton's own heart. See for yourself how far these lovers will go to have it all - money, love and passion, and the ultimate price they must pay, in the film that has everyone talking!