S1 • E1
May 1940:- At the Halcyon hotel in London discreet manager Richard Garland turns a blind eye when the promiscuous owner Lord Hamilton smuggles in his flighty mistress Charity Lambert to sit in on a secret meeting of the appeasement party. When his wife Lady Hamilton arrives unexpectedly Richard and his receptionist daughter Emma, assisted by housekeeper Lilian and porter Feldman, act quickly to prevent her from catching the couple together. Emma is mutually attracted to RAF pilot Freddie, the Hamiltons' elder son who turns up with researcher brother Toby but Betsey, the out-spoken dance band singer, warns Emma that Freddie is out of her league. At a party for Freddie his father's indiscretions are common knowledge with the staff and Lady Hamilton despite the pair putting up a united front. They are all observed by American journalist Joe O'Hara, whose plan to expose Hamilton's political stance in a broadcast home leads to disaster.
S1 • E2
Freddie flies in with his crew-mates, and touches down. There's a brief moment of camaraderie, before he ruefully watches his squadron head towards the mess. He turns the other way: there's a car waiting for him.
S1 • E3
As France falls to the Nazis the odious Count de St Claire and his secretary Lucian D'Abberville are amongst the refugees staying at the Halcyon. The count makes advances to chambermaid Kate and flies into a rage when his gun disappears. A search of the staff's lockers reveals that Max has stolen a pair of Lord Hamilton's cuff-links and he is arrested. Emma, now assistant manager, feels sorry for him on learning he was hoping to sell them to raise money to help his family come to England and persuades Lady Hamilton to drop charges. He is reinstated at the hotel, to the annoyance of Perry, who is dismissed by Emma. Young page-boy Billy, who took the gun, confronts the count with it on hearing of Kate's experience and the count demands his dismissal. However Richard, learning of the count's philandering reputation at other hotels, conspires with Lucian to make him leave. Freddie also leaves to join his squadron whilst Billy, having turned eighteen, also joins up.
S1 • E4
O'Hara is offered a job in American television but, on learning that he will not be replaced as the London war correspondent, Emma takes him to a hospital for wounded airmen, as a result of which he turns it down. Lucian takes Lady Hamilton on her first ever visit to a cinema, where she is surrounded by ' ordinary people'. As a consequence she makes the effort to befriend staff members though the meeting is somewhat awkward. Band singer Betsey's tarty mother Gloria arrives to see her, to the concern of pianist Sonny, who fears that she has come to sponge off her daughter and bribes her to leave. Richard is also worried by Emma's relationship with Freddie, whom he fears may not return from his next flying mission.
S1 • E5
September 1940: Richard allows Emma to organize a lavish wedding reception for the daughter of Lady Hamilton's friends the Ashworths with Lucian, somewhat reluctantly for fear of gossip, escorting Priscilla Hamilton. Best man Freddie has to console the widow of a fellow airman killed in action but the proceedings are interrupted by an air-raid, forcing the guests to shelter in the basement. Chefs Robbie and Max continue completing the wedding cake with Robbie exhorting Max not to give up hope for his family. Richard and Peggy also shelter from the raid, which destroys her house, but he is disconcerted to meet Douglas, a former WW1 colleague who carries a secret only he and Richard know. Betsey learns that Sonny paid off Gloria whilst the sexual attraction increases not just between Lady Hamilton and Lucian but Toby and barman Adil.
S1 • E6
Emma joins the WRVS and whilst Richard is fearful for her safety he is proud enough of her to buy her uniform. During a particularly fierce air raid she is shadowed by O' Hara, who risks his life by staying with her throughout the raid to tend the wounded and protect the dead from scavengers, resulting in a better mutual understanding. However the raid claims its first victim from the hotel staff. Lucian sees Adil sneaking out of Toby's room and, whilst assuring Toby of his discretion, seeks to blackmail Adil into revealing more about Toby's hush-hush work. Betsey angers Sonny with her decision to quit his band for more lucrative work - but when he learns that it is to repay him for bribing Gloria to leave a declaration of love follows.
S1 • E7
As Lucian D'Abberville continues to pressure Adil into betraying his lover MI5 officer Mortimer arrives at the Halcyon to investigate Toby over leaked information and Toby has cause to be grateful to Freddie and family friend Lord Ambrose for saving him . However Toby suspects Adil of informing on him and ends their affair. Sonny stands up to racists objecting to his relationship with Betsey and Peggy draws closer to Richard after her bereavement and the evacuation of her little girl. Emma is also finding O'Hara attractive as he becomes more helpful to her but the most shocking amatory news comes when Lady Hamilton announces her engagement to D'Abberville, whom both her sons and Richard are beginning to see as an unknown quantity and a possible liability.
S1 • E8
The hotel prepares for 50th anniversary celebrations: Lady Hamilton's getting into the spirit, but she can't help Toby's anxiety. He attempts to talk to her about Lucian, but is interrupted by the man himself: there seems to be no escape.
Lillian Hobbs
Feldman
Freddie Hamilton
Toby Hamilton
Tom
Skinner
Wilfred Reynolds
Kate Loughlin
Emma Garland
Sonny Sullivan