Keira Knightley stars in the film of Ian McEwan's novel about the tragic misunderstandings of a young girl with a fertile imagination.
On the hottest day of the summer of 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis sees her older sister Cecilia strip off her clothes and plunge into the fountain in the garden of their country house. Watching Cecilia is their housekeeper's son Robbie Turner, a childhood friend who, along with Briony's sister, has recently graduated from Cambridge. By the end of that day the lives of all three will have been changed forever. Robbie and Cecilia will have crossed a boundary they had never before dared to approach and will have become victims of the younger girl's scheming imagination, and Briony will have committed a dreadful crime, the guilt for which will colour her entire life.
Briony gazed out the window at the leonine yellow sunlight reflecting off the fiery gravel. How could she have let herself be outmanoeuvred by her cousin Lola? As her fury abated - self-pity was so unattractive, especially in a 13-year-old - Briony spied her sister Cecilia talking to Robbie. As Briony imagined their conversations, Cecilia undressed to her undergarments before diving into the water. What turmoil of emotions had possessed her?
