In 1939 England, the Cuthbertsons - Helena (Felicity Kendal) and Richard (Paul Eddington), a war cripple - live in Cornwall with their orphaned niece, Sophy. Sophy is resented by Helena, and has little in common with Richard, and so is pleased when her four cousins arrive in August for a holiday. They talk excitedly about the possibility of war, and look forward to the 'Terror Run' - a night-time spree along a cliff path. Austrian refugees Max and Monika Erstweiler are invited to the traditional family dinner which takes place before the run, but the evening comes to an abrupt end when the news arrives that the outbreak of war is imminent.

Martin Shaw stars as P.D. James's detective Adam Dalgliesh in these adaptations of her popular crime novels. In 'Death in Holy Orders', Dalgliesh returns to St Anselm's, the theological college he attended in his youth, where a rash of brutal murders forces him to confront old memories. In 'The Murder Room', Dalgliesh traces the clues in a murder all the way to the House of Lords.