Summary

One in this dramatic anthology series. This production, an adaptation of the 1925 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, begins in 1917 on Long Island, New York, where rich and socially prominent Daisy Fay briefly meets and falls in love with Jay Gatsby, an enigmatic army captain. However, while Gatsby is overseas at war, Daisy is pressured into marrying the wealthy Tom Buchanan. Five years later, Daisy's cousin Nick Carraway meets Gatsby, who suddenly reappears on Long Island and purchases the huge estate at which Nick has rented the gate house for the summer -- an estate which sits directly across the bay from the Buchanan's. Nick learns from Daisy's friend Jordan Baker that the Buchanan's marriage is an unhappy one; and indeed Tom even introduces Nick to his mistress, Myrtle Wilson, a lower-class woman whose husband, George, runs a garage. Meanwhile, Gatsby's house becomes the scene of continual lavish parties, which Nick learns Gatsby hosts purely in the hope that Daisy will one day wander in. Finally Gatsby takes a somewhat more direct approach: he asks Nick to invite Daisy to the gate house for a visit so that he can pretend to happen by and see her. On the big day, as the two men anxiously await Daisy's arrival, Gatsby details his privileged background -- a personal history that seems to change ever so slightly each time he tells it. Gatsby is overwhelmed when he and Daisy are finally reunited, and as he proudly takes her on a tour of his grand new house, he proclaims his love for her. Meanwhile, the cuckolded George Wilson becomes enraged at Myrtle and at the garage threatens her with a gun. Later, at the Buchanan's house, Tom tells Daisy and the others what an investigation has revealed about the man who calls himself Jay Gatsby. The drama comes to a climax as the worlds of the Buchanans and the Wilsons collide in two successive tragedies. In the aftermath, Nick has a realization about Daisy, and about the dishonesty in his own life. Includes commercials and promos.