A wealthy Victorian gentleman becomes consumed by pathological jealousy after suspecting his young wife of having an improper friendship with an older colonel, despite there being no real evidence of wrongdoing. His obsessive refusal to accept her innocence drives him to cast her out and retreat into paranoid isolation, ultimately destroying his own health and sanity. The series weaves in several secondary romantic storylines involving other characters navigating the social and marital conventions of the era, based on the Anthony Trollope novel.