Free-spirited sisters Gudrun (Glenda Jackson) and Ursula (Jennie Linden) explore erotic love with a wealthy playboy (Oliver Reed) and a philosophical educator (Alan Bates) while they are growing up in the sheltered confines of a 1920s English coal-mining community, with disastrous results for all four of them. Alan Bates and Oliver Reed also play supporting roles. The work, which was contentious but is now considered a masterpiece, was written by D. H. Lawrence.