The Hawthorns are a wealthy family in the early Victorian era, the father, Alexander Hawthorn, is the head of the huge mansion. He is a stern, stoic figure, whose distant nature keeps his family at arms length. His wife, Martha, is kind but sick and bedridden, while their twin sons, Henry and William, and their youngest daughter Holly, are distant children who seem to exist more for the sake of appearance than as individuals in their own right. A family too proud to admit they are dysfunctional.