Season 4 of the costume drama opens six months after the tragedy that befell the Crawley household at the end of Season 3. Mary (Michelle Dockery) is especially bereft, though she comes to terms with her new reality as the season unfolds and even steps in to help manage the estate, a move that’s encouraged by brother-in-law Tom (Allen Leech) but opposed by her ever-traditional father, Robert (Hugh Bonneville). Other story lines involve Edith (Laura Carmichael) , whose involvement with the married Michael Gregson (Charles Edwards) has unwanted consequences; Rose (Lily James), whose feelings for an African-American singer find her willing to buck the taboos of the 1920s; Anna (Joanne Froggatt), who suffers a vicious assault at the hands of a visitor’s valet that she then tries to hide from Mr. Bates (Brendan Coyle); and Mr. Carson (Jim Carter), whose one-time vaudeville partner Charlie Grigg (Nicky Henson) is facing hard times.