Derek Charles is a hard working man, employed as a asset manager in a private company. He is very happy with his beautiful wife, Sharon, and only son, and because of his hard work he just got a huge promotion. But suddenly he gets a temporary worker who is both attractive and smart, and Derek is understandably impressed with her and also finds himself physically drawn to her. However, this new girl is desperate to get close to him - at any cost.

In nineteenth century Yorkshire wealthy orphan Anne Lister lives with an aunt and uncle, anxious for her to marry well and blissfully - unaware that she is a lesbian. Anne is recording her thoughts and exploits in a coded diary. When her lover Mariana Belcombe makes a marriage of convenience to rich old Charles Lawton she feels betrayed and, although Mariana visits her,the relationship is going nowhere. Helped by old flame Tib she makes a play for innocent Miss Browne but sees she is barking up the wrong tree and diverts herself by renovating the family hall. A drunken Tib almost exposes her secret and scornful mine-owner Christopher Rawson, whose marriage proposal she rejects, tells her that her sexuality is a subject of local gossip....

A spoiled Manhattan housewife re-evaluates her life after visiting a Chinatown healer.