The Rainbow

The Rainbow follows three generations of the Brangwen family as rural life in the English Midlands is transformed by industrial growth and changing social expectations. Tom Brangwen marries the Polish widow Lydia Lensky and raises her daughter Anna, whose passionate and troubled marriage to Tom’s nephew Will becomes the centre of the family’s second generation.
Anna and Will’s daughter Ursula seeks a life beyond the farm, church and domestic roles available to the women before her. Her work as a teacher and her relationship with the soldier Anton Skrebensky lead her through desire, disillusionment and increasing resistance to marriage as a surrender of independence. The family chronicle ends with Ursula attempting to imagine a different future after the collapse of that relationship.