Two best friends fall in love with a pair of women, but the relationships soon go in very different directions.
The battle of the sexes and relationships among the elite of Britain's industrial Midlands in the 1920s. Gerald Crich and Rupert Berkin are best friends who fall in love with a pair of sisters Gudrun, a sculptress and Ursula Brangwen, a schoolteacher. Rupert marries Ursula, Gerald begins a love affair with Gudrun, and the foursome embarks upon a Swiss honeymoon. But the relationships take markedly different directions, as Russell explores the nature of commitment and love. Rupert and Ursula learn to give themselves to each other. The more withdrawn Gerald cannot, finally, connect with the demanding and challenging Gudrun.—alfiehitchie
It's post-World War I in the Midlands. Gudrun and Ursula Brangwen are sisters from a working class family, both teachers, while Gudrun is also an artist. From a higher social standing, Rupert Birkin and Gerald Crich are best friends, Rupert a school inspector, Gerald a mining heir who currently manages the town's coal mine. In separate situations, each pair talks about their individual feelings concerning emotional love, marriage, the associated physical act of sex, and whether each of those three components can or should exist without the other two. The four individuals are all aware of the others, but are brought together into a more intimate situation when pretentious Hermione Roddice invites the Brangwen sisters to a weekend gathering at her country mansion, the gathering to which Rupert, her boyfriend, and Gerald are also invited. Hermione has ulterior motives in inviting the sisters, Gudrun, who is more aware of that motive than Ursula. Regardless, from that weekend, Rupert and Ursula, and Gerald and Gudrun begin relationships with each other. All four are different in mentality, each requiring something different from their respective relationship. As such, each of the two couplings end up taking different paths. Based on those needs and wants, the question also arises if a partner or spouse can truly fulfill all the emotional needs, "love", of the other being only one of two genders.—Huggo
