Ruth Wilcox's deathbed wish forever changes relations between her well-heeled family and bourgeois Schlegel sisters Margaret (Oscar winner Emma Thompson) and Helen (Helena Bonham Carter) when Ruth bequeaths her manor -- Howards End -- to Margaret. Ruth's husband, Henry (Anthony Hopkins), acting in his family's "best interest," burns the coda to her will. But as lonely Henry falls for Margaret, providence dictates that he pay for his duplicity.