The Hurlingham Club in Buenos Aires is a little piece of England, home to the small Anglo-Argentine community where gossip is devoured as eagerly as the scones and Earl Grey tea. Here Audrey Garnet grows up and loses her heart to Louis Forrester, the talented, troubled young man who sets tongues wagging with his eccentric behavior and checkered past. Finding in Audrey the one woman who understands him, Louis composes especially for her a brilliant piece of music: the forget-me-not sonata. To the hypnotic melody of this magical tune they embark upon a secret love affair. But a family tragedy brings their romance to an abrupt end and Audrey, ever the dutiful daughter, thrills her parents by accepting Louis's successful, respectable elder brother, Cecil, as her husband. It is a sacrifice she bitterly regrets. Despite the pleasures of family life, and in time, beloved daughters of her own, Audrey hears the sweet, plaintive notes of the forget-me-not sonata echo through the years as a reminder of the love that she has lost.