A young girl of 10 years old had a crush with a young man, who was in love with her elder sister and vice versa. However, she bore false witness against this young man and accused him of the rape of another girl. As a result, this man was imprisoned and later sent to fight the Nazi during World War II. He and his elder sister never got re-united. The novel, as told through this successful novel writer, re-wrote to make them re-united and happy ever after. This was the atonement, the least she could do to make up for her wrong doing because of her jealousy and foolishness.

The movie was beautifully and brilliantly directed and the country scenes of England were breath-taking. The pace was a little slow and jumped back and forth in time, but it was necessary to develop the characters and seeing the perspectives from both of the sisters. I like the movie. Often we don’t see the consequences of our actions. The consequences are at times very different from what we expected. Being prudence is the moral calling of the story and seizing the moment (so you won’t regret what you could have missed) is another. The two seem to be opposing at times – another paradox of life.