Told over 40 years, Life in Squares centres on the complex relationship between sisters Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf, and Vanessa's sexually tangled alliance with gay artist Duncan Grant. At the beginning of the 20th century, Vanessa, Virginia and Duncan are at the vanguard of a radical new movement. Surrounded by the finest progressive minds of the day - including the renowned writer Lytton Strachey, urbane art critic Clive Bell, and pioneering economist Maynard Keynes - they are determined to shake off the shackles of Victorian England. As the narrative shifts between the decades, their earlier and later lives intertwine; by the 1930s, Vanessa has settled into marriage and motherhood, and Virginia is enjoying huge public acclaim. But the emotional entanglements of their past have taken their toll - can the sisters escape the pall cast by their repressive parents, or will they inflict the same mistakes on generations to come?