In the seventeenth century, Sir John and Lady Mary Bankes, the well-respected Royalist owners of Corffe Castell in Dorsetshire, face the horrific prospect of civil war, instigated by Parliamentarian opponents of Charles I, who has angered his subjects by dissolving the government with the aim of ruling ‘by decree'. The nation is divided and friends turn against friends in the growing threat of deadly conflict. Lady Bankes, a remarkable woman of fortitude, beauty and intelligence, defends her beloved home with the (mostly) loyal backing of the household workers and villagers and with particular support from a retired cavalry captain. Will the Castell and its inhabitants survive the onslaught and to what end?