In 1947 England, in the home of Professor Robert Linden, chair of modern history at the provincial University of Burmanley, rationing and austerity seem to have fostered opportunism, escapism and confrontation within the Linden family, gathered to celebrate Robert's 65th birthday and each of whom is struggling with their own crises.

In the city of Mycenae, a few years after the Trojan War, a bitter struggle for justice is undertaken by Electra and her brother Orestes for the murder of their father Agamemnon by Clytemnestra and their stepfather Aegisthus.

A luncheon party gathers to celebrate a wealthy unmarried man's birthday; his sister hopes he'll marry Sonya, the daughter of a selfish gout-ridden old professor who makes life Hell for his son George and his young wife, Helen.

An English slave trader is marooned on a remote tropical island, forced to fend for himself and deal with crushing loneliness.

King Magnus's position as monarch is in danger – can he 'upset the apple cart' and preserve his throne?

Scandalmonger Lady Sneerwell controls a nest of gossipy vipers, and young Lady Teazle, bored by her elderly husband Sir Peter, has been lured into the circle too.

An aging King invites disaster, when he abdicates to his corrupt, toadying daughters, and rejects his loving and honest one.

A personal dispute between a union leader and a management leader causes chaos for workers at a troublesome tin mining company.