Based on the best selling novel by the late, celebrated author Elizabeth Taylor, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont centres around an elderly widower (Dame Joan Plowright) who moves to London's Claremont Hotel to be closer to her grandson Desmond. Though she had high hopes for the cosmopolitan pleasures of living in the big city, she is soon filled with a sense of unease as she surveys her drab surroundings and the eccentric guests at the Claremont. When Desmond fails to return her phone calls, Mrs Palfrey's days become even more gloomy-until fate brings her together with a young writer, Ludovic Meyer. Ludo inadvertently leads Mrs Palfrey through her past; Mrs Palfrey inadvertently leads Ludo to his future. The pair find they have much in common; the young writer finally finds the story he has been looking for and Mrs Palfrey finds the 'grandson' she never knew she had.