In 1913 Connie Reid marries wealthy Nottingham colliery owner Sir Clifford Chatterley but he returns from the Great War disabled and in a wheelchair. Connie is loyal but begins to feel alienated as he engages a nurse, Mrs Bolton, and excludes her from pit business. Despite his desire for an heir his impotency results in a lack of sexual activity and Connie is drawn to handsome Oliver Mellors, the plain-spoken former miner her husband has engaged as his game-keeper and who represents the passion she craves. They embark upon a physical affair in Oliver's cottage but are discovered and betrayed by Mrs Bolton. Connie, now carrying Oliver's child, must choose between a pampered but joyless existence with her husband or an uncertain future with the man she has come to love.