Margaret (Lena Headey) is a shy, pale, middle-class Englishwoman who is reluctantly engaged to her older, twittish neighbor Syl Monro (David Threlfall). Both bride- and groom-to-be still live with their mothers in the humdrum suburb of Croydon. However Margaret has been acting strangely ever since a vacation in Egypt, where she stayed with her mother's friend Marie-Claire (Catherine Schell). She secretly despises Syl, but does not resist when her mother Monica (Julie Walters), who has repressed the failure of her own matrimony, insists on marriage for the sake of social convention.
Jeanne Moreau
as Lili
Joan Plowright
as Mrs. Monro
Lena Headey
as Margaret
Julie Walters
as Monica
David Threlfall
as Syl
Catherine Schell
as Marie-Claire
John Wood
as Robert
Padraig O'Loinsigh
as Nour
Britta Smith
as Mother Joseph
Annabel Burton
as Margaret as a Child
David Gant
as Gallery Owner
Roger Lloyd Pack
as Derek
