In an English country house, Sir Clifford Chatterley lives with his wife Constance. Severely wounded in World War I, he is paralysed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair. Constance tries to be a good wife, but he is distant and her life is empty. One day the maid is ill and Constance goes to see Parkin, the gamekeeper, about some pheasants for the table. Approaching the hut in the woods where he works, she sees him stripped to the waist and washing himself; the sight perturbs her.