"Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder" is a novel by Evelyn Waugh. In the preface there is a description to the revised edition of 1959 that the novel marked Waugh's departure from his earlier satirical works.
The story happens during wartime. Charles Ryder is stationed at Brideshead. He recalls his past experiences there as a guest of the Marchmains, a great Roman Catholic family. His acquaintance with them begins at Oxford, where he meets Sebastian Flyte, the younger son of the Marquis of Marchmain.
Lord Marchmain has deserted his family to live in Venice with his mistress. He has two daughters, Julia and Cordelia. Sebastian holds himself aloof from his mother Lady Marchmain who is a devoted Catholic, along with his sisters. Sebastian sinks into alcoholism. He flees to North Africa. After the death of Lady Marchmain, he lives in an African monastery.
Meanwhile, Charles Ryder continues to visit Brideshead, where his feelings for Julia grows. She, however, marries a non-Catholic politician who fails to qualify as a Catholic convert.
Lord Marchmain returns to Brideshead with the death of Lady Marchmain. In his own deathbed, Lord Marchmain's Catholic faith is restored. Julia, now divorced, might have married Ryder, but witnessing her father's reconciliation to the Catholic faith, she too returns to Catholicism. Ryder's doubts about his own faith are somehow resolved, with his agnostic beliefs slowly withering.