The series starred Stella Gonet as Beatrice Eliott and Louise Lombard as Evangeline Eliott, two sisters in 1920s London who establish a dressmaking business and eventually their own haute couture fashion house, Aden Gillett as photographer and film maker Jack Maddox and Maggie Ollerenshaw as head of the workroom Florence Ranby.

The series was written by several writers, including Jill Hyem, Peter Buckman, Deborah Cook and Ginnie Hole.

To earn money, they make use of their passion for dressmaking and Bea gets a job as secretary at a local photography studio run by Jack Maddox.

Not only does Henry Eliott leave his daughters penniless and uneducated, but their cousin Arthur, who is executor of their father's estate, and Evie's legal guardian, keeps a rightful inheritance from the girls "for their own good".

After Arthur's arrest and imprisonment for involvement in drug smuggling, he emigrates to Boston, USA, releasing a large amount of cash owed to the sisters from their father's estate.

While there, Bea marries her former employer and friend Jack Maddox, and they move back to London, leaving Evie alone in Paris to work at the fashion house "Maison Gilles".

At a showing of one of Jack's films, Evie meets Lord Alexander Montford, a married member of Parliament, with whom she begins an affair, causing complications throughout the series.

The House of Eliott faces ruin after the suspicious death of Sir Desmond Gillispie causes the firm's financial affairs to be taken over by Ralph Saroyan.

Meanwhile, as the market for couture gowns wanes during the late 1920s Great Depression, Beatrice and Evangeline are offered a tour of America showing their new ready-to-wear designs for Sears and Roebuck.

Back at the fashion house, after a crisis of confidence, Tilly marries Norman Foss, a young chef in a local hotel, and is reinstated as head of the workroom.

Needing an expert cutter, Bea and Evie consider offering him a job; but they decide against it, concerned that the House's connection to Florence's death would be too difficult for him.

Judy Campbell, Phyllis Calvert, James Cosmo, Eileen Davies, Minnie Driver, Amanda Mealing, Sheila Gish.

The show was parodied by comedy duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders in a series of sketches called ‘The House of Idiot’.

[4] Stella Gonet, Louise Lombard and Cathy Murphy actually appear, in character, during the final sketch and comically reprimand the pair for mocking the show.