In 1944, British Army Captain Michael Berryman meets the artist Thomas March in Southern Italy. Despite the fact he has a young fianc waiting for him back at home, straight-laced Michael finds himself falling for Thomas' bohemian charms. When the war ends they steal some time away at Michael's secluded cottage, where they briefly experience life as a couple and Thomas paints Michael's portrait, 'Man In An Orange Shirt'. Against Thomas' protestations, Michael then returns to the very different life in London he left before the war - back to marriage, and plans to start a family. Thomas returns to the relative freedom of Soho where, at great personal risk, he can live the life of a gay man. Will their old lives be enough to satisfy Michael and Thomas in the wake of what they had before? Or can they find a way for their love to survive against the pressures of conventional marriage, 1940s society, and the law?