For over 100 years Country Life magazine has celebrated the great country houses of England, and peeked into the lives of those who lived in them. This film tracks down five blue-blooded women who were featured announcing their engagements on its most well-known page. Dubbed 'Girls in Pearls' by Country Life's readers, these women were brought up to believe that marrying someone with a stately home or a large country estate would deliver them wonderful lives.

From Kate Sackville-West, who grew up in Knole, one of the largest houses in the country, to Henrietta Tiarks the 1950s 'It girl' who married a duke, this film charts the highs, lows and extraordinary reversals of fortune that followed the publication of their engagement photos in Country Life magazine.