The film, starring Emma Thompson in the title role, focuses on her unusual relationship with the author Lytton Strachey, played by Jonathan Pryce, as well as with other members of the Bloomsbury Group.

It was primarily based upon his String Quartet No.3, with which Hampton created a temp track, and wanted as a leitmotif for Lytton Strachey.

The score is also based on Schubert's String Quintet in C, D. 956, whose Adagio is played during a scene in the film.

However, there is also newly composed material for the film, including "Virgin on the roof," which was incorporated into the String Quartet No.

[3] Six years later Thomson reinforced this by observing that "[Pryce's] superb Lytton Strachey in the little-seen Carrington ... is unmistakably the work of a great actor.