“Downton Abbey” weaves many interlocking plot lines involving a couple of dozen characters into a large tapestry of a story. Here is the barest of outlines.
Season 1 takes place April 1912 to August 1914. Downton Abbey, the estate of Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham, and his American-born wife, Cora, can only pass to a male heir, and they have three daughters. The eldest, Lady Mary, is engaged to the heir, her cousin James. James and his brother die in the Titanic disaster. The new heir is a distant cousin, Matthew Crawley, a solicitor.
The arrival of Matthew begins the central drama of Season 1, the clash between the traditional earl and his new heir, who is part of the growing professional middle class. The servants’ lives are roiled by the arrival of John Bates, the earl’s former military aide and new valet.
Romances develop between Matthew and Mary and between Mary’s sister, Lady Sybil, and the chauffeur, Tom Branson.
World War I begins and Matthew, unsure of Mary’s sincerity, departs.
Season 2 takes place 1916-20. Matthew and Tom enlist to go the war. Matthew is now engaged to Miss Lavinia Swire, even though he is still in love with Mary.
Matthew becomes paralyzed and returns to Downton to be cared for by Lady Mary. Tom comes home and elopes with Lady Sybil. Bates and Anna, the housemaid, strike up a romance that is cut short when Bates is wrongly accused of the murder of his ex-wife.
Matthew’s paralysis miraculously disappears. The Spanish flu epidemic arrives to kill his fiancee. Matthew proposes to Mary. Sybil becomes pregnant.
Season 3 takes place 1920-21. Lord Grantham learns that his wife’s money has been lost to his bad investments, leaving him near bankruptcy. Lavinia’s father dies, and Matthew learns that he is the heir to that large fortune. However, he declines it, thinking that he is the heir under false pretenses. Matthew and Mary quarrel over this decision, as the money could save Downton Abbey.
A misplaced letter reveals that Lavinia’s father knew of Matthew’s feelings but wanted him to have the money anyway. Matthew uses the inheritance to bail out the earl.
Bates is convicted of his wife’s murder. The Crawleys’ third daughter, Lady Edith, becomes engaged to a much older man. Tom and Sybil return from Ireland to Downton Abbey to escape the Irish police. Sybil dies in childbirth.
Lady Rose, a young relative of the Crawleys, is sent to live at Downton. Edith’s fiance calls off the wedding. Anna manages to get Bates freed from prison. Mary gives birth to a boy. On his way home from the hospital, Matthew dies in a car crash.
Season 4 takes place 1922-23. Tom, now manager of Downton Abbey, battles with the earl over the handling of the estate. Another lost letter surfaces, this one proclaiming Mary as Matthew’s sole heir. She, Tom and the earl settle into joint management of Downton.
A visiting lord’s valet rapes Anna. She refuses to tell Bates about the incident, because she worries he will kill the man. Mary is pursued by two new suitors.
Bates finally learns Anna’s secret. Shortly after, the rapist is found dead. Lady Edith strikes up a romance with a newspaper publisher. She becomes pregnant. The publisher mysteriously disappears. Edith goes away to have the baby and gives her up to be raised by a local couple.
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