Lady Brenda Last is bored. Her husband, Tony, may be rich. They may have the magnificent country estate of Hetton. They may have a beautiful child and a marriage that is the envy of many. But something is missing.

So when John Beaver, a penniless but handsome young man comes to stay, it isn't long before Lady Brenda finds herself in the back of a taxi in his arms.

Falling into the affair is easy. Falling out of it proves more difficult as Brenda finds herself more and more deeply immersed in her search for excitement. When an unexpected tragedy strikes, it delivers a fatal blow to the marriage. But Brenda is unprepared for the length her husband will go to keep what is his. Their struggle will lead her to the brink of insanity, and her husband to the end of the earth.

Based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh, author of "Brideshead Revisited." A HANDFUL OF DUST reveals the brittle fragility of the well-made marriage and the ironic tragedy of the unmade bed in this tense sexual drama of 1930's England.