Peter (Stephen Fry) invites his old college friends to his enormous mansion in England. Peter has major and serious news to tell them, but he has to put it off because they are having many domestic problems with one another. As they spend time together at the end of the year with fights, food, drink, music, and conversation, writer Andrew (Kenneth Branagh) is at odds with his American wife, Carol (Rita Rudner), songwriter and musician Roger (Hugh Laurie) and wife Mary (Imelda Staunton) have suffered a loss, Sarah (Alphonsia Emmanuel) is having an affair with a married man named Brian (Tony Slattery), and lonesome publisher Maggie (Emma Thompson) wants to find a lover.