An adaptation of a novel by the English writer William Thackeray. Barry Lyndon, an ambitious and unscrupulous young Irishman, is forced to emigrate because of a duel. From then on, he leads a wandering life full of adventures. His dream is to achieve a high social position, and he realizes it by entering into an advantageous marriage, thanks to which he becomes part of the English nobility of the 18th century.