Mr. Neville (Anthony Higgins (actor)), a young, arrogant artist and something of a Byronic hero, is contracted by Mrs. Virginia Herbert (Janet Suzman) to produce a series of twelve landscape drawings of her country house, its outbuildings and gardens, for her absent and estranged husband. Part of the contract is that Mrs. Herbert agrees "to meet Mr. Neville in private and to comply with his requests concerning his pleasure with me". Several sexual encounters between them follow, each indicating reluctance or distress on the part of Mrs Herbert and sexual aggression or insensitivity on the part of Mr Neville. During his stay, Mr. Neville becomes disliked by several of its visitors and inhabitants, especially by Mrs. Herbert's son-in-law, Mr. Talmann (Hugh Fraser (actor)).