In spring of 1905 in England, Margaret Schlegel receives a letter from her younger sister Helen, currently visiting the Wilcox family at their country home, Howards End. On hearing that Helen has fallen in love with the youngest Wilcox son Paul, Margaret's Aunt Juley is dispatched to Howard's End to represent the Schlegel family, but an engagement does not come to pass. After a night out at a concert, Helen leaves the venue with the umbrella of struggling bank clerk Leonard Bast, to whom she was seated next to. On discovering the mix-up, Margaret invites Leonard to tea, but he soon becomes uncomfortable in their company and leaves. In a further twist, when the Wilcoxes move to London and take a flat around the corner to the Schlegels, Margaret strikes up a friendship with the enigmatic but ailing Mrs Wilcox.