The Line of Beauty (TV series)

Nick Guest, a recent Oxford graduate from a middle-class family, is invited to stay in the home of his best friend, Toby Fedden, son of Tory MP Gerald Fedden, while the family, minus their bipolar daughter Cat, are out on holiday in France. Nick is asked by Cat and Toby's mother, Rachel, to keep an eye on Cat as she had a history of cutting herself, and to contact them if Cat were to have any issues. Not long after the rest of the Feddens are gone, Cat does have a minor episode, but after Nick helps her, she begs him to not contact her parents and he agrees. They quickly form a close friendship, and when the Feddens return, Rachel is so impressed by how well Nick and Cat bonded that she insists Nick stays on as a permanent lodger. This arrangement allows Nick to be brought into the lifestyle of the Feddens, giving him an insider's look at life in upper class English society. With Cat's assistance, Nick meets Leo, with whom Nick falls madly in love. However, this romance is short lived when Leo breaks up with Nick to go back to his ex Pete, who was starting to show symptoms of having AIDS before the condition became widely known.

Nick has become fully integrated into the Fedden family. Nick had become involved with another friend from Oxford, Wani, the son of a rich Lebanese businessman, but because of Wani's cultural and economic background, the relationship had to be kept secret. Nick and Wani have started a magazine and film production company together, which also becomes a convenient cover for their relationship. Due to Nick's exposure to the lifestyles of the rich, he becomes involved with drugs and more hedonistic behaviour. Nick accompanies Gerald to Nick's home town of Barwick, and while there Nick stumbles upon Gerald having sex with one of his secretaries. Later, the Feddens are again on holiday in France and this time invites Nick and Wani to join them. While there, things in the Fedden family become tense, with Cat becoming rebellious against her father's involvement with a shady investor and showing signs that she is no longer taking her meds, Nick becoming more open about his homosexuality, and Gerald all but telling Nick to remain silent about the affair. When everyone returns to England, the Feddens have a party for Margaret Thatcher. Prior to the party Nick goes to a bar to get drugs, and while there sees his ex, Leo, who is showing symptoms of AIDS, but out of fear Nick avoids approaching Leo and leaves the bar as soon as he is able. At the party, Nick makes a strong impression with Thatcher by inviting her to dance and making the party a smashing success.

The Tories are at the height of power with elections approaching. Leo's lesbian sister Rosemary arrives to Nick's office to inform him that Leo died from complications of AIDS, to let Nick know that Leo did have a special love for him, and to be sure that Nick hadn't become sick. Nick's boyfriend Wani, however, was not spared having contracted the disease, and eventually his condition causes the relationship to end and their mutual business ventures to falter. Not long after the elections in which Gerald wins another term, the Feddens are hit full on by the press when it comes out about Gerald's affair and his dealings with corrupt investors involved in a major financial scandal. They discover that the source of this information is a fully manic Cat who had long been off her medications and ran away from home. The magnitude of the scandal forces Gerald to resign in disgrace. Further scandal hits when it is leaked about Nick's homosexuality, and this destroys Nick's relationship with the Feddens, who now question how he became integrated into their lives and project their anger onto Nick by feelings of betrayal and force him to move out of their house. The final knife in Nick's back was while he was saying farewell to their housekeeper, whom he thought he had a close bond with of the four years residing there, only to have her parting words being that she knew he was no good from the moment she first laid eyes on him. Nick leaves the Feddens a broken man with an uncertain future.