The sweeping Downton Abbey saga continues, beginning six months after the unexpected death of Matthew Crawley, heir to Downton Abbey, husband to Lady Mary, and brand new father to a baby boy and successor, in a car accident. Although it is the 1920s, Britain still observes mourning rituals that are almost Victorian in their solemnity. Nonetheless, life goes on at Downton Abbey and the Crawleys are beginning to snap out of it.

Set in an Edwardian country house in 1912, Downton Abbey portrays the lives of the Crawley family and the servants who work for them. In the drawing rooms, library, and beautiful bedrooms, with their tall windows looking across the park, lives the family, but below stairs are other residents, the servants, as fiercely possessive of their ranks as anyone above.