In the roaring 1920s, Georgina and her friends rebel against the depression and hard times of the war, but her frivolity and merriment quickly end — firstly by a friend's suicide who professed his love for her and threatened to kill himself unless she married him, then killed himself during a Roaring 20s party at the Bellamy house. Secondly, Georgina accidentally kills a working class man after taking Richard's car without permission and driving it herself to compete in a scavenger hunt. Her friends, part of the moneyed, bored and pleasure-seeking "bright young things", desert her at the inquest. Only the rich but shallow Lady Dolly Hale and also the seemingly dull Lord Robert Stockbridge, heir to a dukedom, defend her. Georgina and Robert quickly fall in love. James suffers long-term emotional stress from his war experiences and Hazel's death. Restless, he stands for Parliament, but loses.