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Private Notes
Christina arrives at "Flambards," on the same day her cousin William is thrown from a horse during a hunt and breaks his knee. Although she prefers William, who loves airplanes, to his arrogant brother Mark, she learns to ride quickly and learns to love hunting. But as William's health improves, Christina wonders where he goes on his daily walks.
Christina continues to "settle in" at Flambards, as bill collectors gather at the estate doors, clumsy Mr. Johnson attempts to tutor the three young people, and Mark dallies with Violet. Christina's attempt to cheer up Flambards' gloomy Christmas is met with indifference, except from Dick the stableboy, and she is glad when spring arrives--until Mark injures Christina's favorite horse in a hunting accident.
Christina talks Dick into giving Sweetbriar to her and William to hide at the home of Mr. Dermot, William's friend who builds and flies airplanes, instead of taking the horse to the slaughterhouse as Uncle Russell has instructed. Christina is amazed by this world of airplanes and motors and is surprised when Mr. Dermot claims William is brilliant. But at a party Mark discovers Sweetbriar wasn't destroyed and Dick is fired, leaving Violet as sole support of their invalid mother.
Mark becomes jealous of the time William and Christina spend together; she is still not speaking to Mark since Dick's dismissal. When Christina visits the Wright cottage and finds them in dire straits, she tries to steal food from the house to help them, but is thwarted by Mark. Meanwhile, on the day of King George's cornation, William takes his first trip in "Emma," Mr. Dermot's newest "flying machine," and Violet is dismissed from Flambards. Dick must then join the army to survive.
Uncle Russell has a great deal of money riding on Mark's winning the local point-to-point race on his expensive new horse, but the race is ruined when William, flying "Emma," has trouble with the aircraft over the course. Uncle Russell, furious, plans to send him to his brother in Canada, but William escapes, intending to look for a job designing airplanes near London, but not before promising to take Christina to the hunt ball.
Christina is left in Battersea, at the home of Aunt Grace, while William looks for work; alas, his bad leg and lack of accreditation do not serve him well. Aunt Grace insists that William have a job before Christina can even think of marrying him. Will eventually gets a job as a mechanic at Elm Park, a flying field, due to the efforts of Sandy, a friend he has made, and Christina meets Dorothy, Sandy's girlfriend, a free-spirited young lady whom Sandy is teaching to fly, to Christina's astonishment. To be near William, Christina eventually takes a job at the Chase Hotel, in training to be a receptionist, and William sees a doctor about fixing his knee, as it severely restricts his flying ability.
William attends Mr. Dermot's funeral and is turned away by his father when he makes a stop at Flambards. He returns to Elm Park in "Emma," which Mr. Dermot has willed to him. Meanwhile, Christina stays out all night with William, helping him repair a plane before morning, which gets her into great trouble with Aunt Grace; fortunately Mr. Saunders understands and she's promoted to receptionist. William has surgery to repair his knee and to help pay the doctor bill, he and Christina fly a Bleriot to France over the Channel, where Christina gets a welcome surprise.
William attempts a stunt he read about in one of the magazines he brought back from France. When he is successful at looping-the-loop, he persuades Mr. Adams to keep him as a training pilot while Sandy becomes a stunt flyer, bringing in more money for the Adams Flying School. Meanwhile, Mark, on his way to join the calvary, interrupts the celebration of Will and Sandy's new flat with the news that Uncle Russell has died. Although Aunt Grace is disapproving when William doesn't attend the funeral, she gives William permission to marry Christina. But tragedy strikes the day William is to exhibit his new plane, the "Dermot," to an aircraft manufacturer.
Following Sandy's funeral, William discusses his plan to join the Flying Corps-- the first World War has just begun--with Christina, but she agrees to be married nevertheless. Mark, on leave from the army, comes to the wedding to give Christina away, and Christina is sure she spies Dick at the end of the ceremony. Will joins the Flying Corps and comes home for a month's leave after 2 1/2 years, learning that Mark is missing in action and presumed killed, and then is killed himself soon after he returns to duty. After a nostalgic visit to a deserted Elm Park, Christina decides to return to Flambards, where she receives good news.
Determined to "bring Flambards alive" again and restore the farm to working condition with her recently inherited money, Christina infuriates Mary and Fowler by asking for repairs and extra work. With all the able men away in the war, Christina is forced to rely on an elderly plasterer for house repairs and two feckless young men for farm help, railling against the restrictions her pregnancy puts on her. Then Christina hatches an idea to find Violet and bring home her child by Mark, a mischief-maker nicknamed "Tizzy."
Christina enrages Mary and Fowler, who are certain they will all be murdered in their beds, by engaging a German prisoner of war to help with the farm work; the "fierce Hun" turns out to be Wilhelm, a gentle man who was a farmer in Germany and who is a harder worker than both Harry and Stanley. Meanwhile, Tizzy informs an astonished Christina that his "Uncle Dick" is home, invalided out of the army by injury and tuberculosis, and Christina offers him the job of running the farm, a job he finally accepts. But Christina further rocks boats by insisting the local landowners treat Dick on an equal footing.
Following the birth of Isobel, Christina returns to supervising the farm work, and with Dick's help, they celebrate their first albeit small harvest with a joyous dinner--one that is rudely interrupted by the return of Mark, just released from a prisoner of war camp. He and Dick immediately become enemies, and, when she has to turn down Mark's proposal of marriage, Christina realizes she may have to leave Flambards if she wants to stay with Dick.
Dorothy's visit to Flambards ends all too soon, but she hopes she's planted a seed in Mark's mind. When Mark allows Tizzy to ride Pheasant, a horse too strong for him, the boy is lost for hours; while recovering Tizzy overhears Mark quarrelling with Christina over the fate of Flambards. In an effort to not have to leave, Tizzy sets the barn afire and Mark and Dick fight together to save the estate. But when Mark's lawyer reveals Flambards is deep in debt and the only way to save it is for Christina to buy it, the tide turns for her--and Mark as well.
