London, England, May 2000. The peaceful life of elderly Joan Stanley is suddenly disrupted when she is arrested by the British Intelligence Service and accused of providing information to communist Russia during the forties.
During the Blitz of World War II, a female screenwriter works on a film celebrating England's resilience as a way to buoy a weary populace's spirits. Her efforts to dramatise the true story of two sisters who undertook their own maritime mission to rescue wounded soldiers are met with mixed feelings by a dismissive all-male staff.
Exiled from his beloved Venice, Giacomo Casanova flees to Paris at the dawn of the Enlightenment in hopes of putting his reputation as a playboy behind him. But old habits die hard, and temptation is everywhere as Casanova finds a wealth of new opportunity and trouble.
The rise and fall of underworld hard-man turned actor Bindon, who despite a successful acting career and passionate romantic liaisons with various socialites, was unable to leave his criminal past behind.