Love Is a Many Splendored Thing

Episode 1

Episode #1.1

Mon, Sep 18, 196722 mins

Onboard a ship sailing from Hong Kong to San Francisco, 21 year-old Mia Elliott meets Captain Paul Bradley. Bradley, recently discharged from the Air Force following injuries in Vietnam, easily befriends Mia, who reveals she is on her way to stay with an aunt and uncle she has never met. Paul is pleased to learn that Mia intends to study medicine not far from his home in Oakland. On the fog-shrouded Golden Gate Bridge, 25 year-old Mark Elliott seeks solitude with his girlfriend Iris Donnelly. Iris suggests Mark give her a ring as a symbol of their respectability, but Mark scoffs at the idea. Iris argues that it's simply to appease her father and his mother, neither of whom are comfortable with their non-traditional lifestyle. However, Mark wonders what the ring actually symbolizes to Iris. Will Donnelly visits son Tom for a game of chess and expresses worry about daughter Iris. Tom tells his father not to expect Iris to come home to him. She has her own apartment and is living a financially independent life now. Will worries that Iris's lifestyle has her on a crash course. Tom counters that all they can do is watch it happen. Will isn't quite as understanding of Iris as he was with Laura, her sister. In a quiet convent chapel, Laura joins the other sisters for vespers. Here, she is known and accepted as Sister Cecilia, but as she kneels to pray, her whispered words are quite different than those around her. As Sister Cecilia, Laura is secretly troubled. Her mind is always on life outside of the convent gates. She imagines the lives of strangers, and her thoughts are never far from her own family in San Francisco. She begs God to help her understand her feelings, the things that trouble her. At the Elliott home, Mark joins his mother Helen for a talk before bed. Helen tells him about the visit she had earlier that afternoon from Rickey Donnelly, Tom's eight year-old son. Rickey questioned why his Aunt Laura wanted to become a nun, but Helen didn't have an answer for him. When she comments that the child is lonely, and recounts the reasons why his family isn't there for him, Mark uses the opportunity to bring up Helen's dislike of Iris. Helen corrects him. It isn't that she dislikes Iris; she just doesn't approve of the young woman's lifestyle, leaving her family and avoiding responsibility. Mark admits he knows something else his mother doesn't like -Mia coming to stay with the family. It's something his father wants. Mia is the daughter of his late brother, the man for whom Mark is a namesake. But, Helen isn't really happy with the situation. Mark encourages his mother to give the girl a chance. Still on deck but now alone, Mia gazes out at the ocean and wonders if the Elliott family will accept her. She begins to speak aloud their names -"Uncle Phil" "Aunt Helen" "Cousin Mark- but as she does, a sudden cold wind rushes in from the sea, piercing through her. She shudders and retreats for the warmth of her cabin.