Back in 1935, financially strapped widow Louisa Durrell, whose entire life has fallen apart, determines to proceed from England, with her four children (three sons, 1 daughter), into the island of Corfu, Greece. There, the family goes into a dilapidated old house that has no electricity and that's crumbling apart. But life on Corfu is economical, it's an earthly heaven, and the Durrells move to invent their presence experiences, and forming relationships.