It is the spring of 1914 and a group of young students at the Slade School of Art have gathered in Henry Tonks's studio for a life-drawing class Paul Tarrant, frustrated by his lack of progress, is easily distracted by an intriguing fellow student, Elinor Brooke But when Kit Neville - himself not long out of the Slade but already a well-known painter - makes it clear he too is attracted to Elinor, Paul withdraws into a passionate affair with an artist's model, ignoring the complications and dangers presented by her estranged husband As spring turns to summer, Paul and Elinor each reach a crisis in their relationships until finally, in the first few days of war, they turn to each other