EAST OF EDEN

East of Eden Brings a New Generation to Steinbeck’s Family Saga

Every family inherits something.

Sometimes it's love. Sometimes it's pain. And sometimes it's the consequences of choices made generations before.

Netflix's East of Eden brings John Steinbeck's classic novel to the screen as a seven-episode limited series, with Florence Pugh taking center stage as one of literature's most complicated characters, Cathy Ames.

Adapted by Zoe Kazan, the story follows Cathy and the Trask family across decades, exploring how their lives become intertwined as they pursue their own versions of the California dream.

Pugh's Cathy is a mysterious and deeply troubled woman whose path crosses with brothers Adam and Charles Trask, played by Christopher Abbott and Mike Faist.

At the heart of the story is a struggle between good and evil — and whether people are shaped by the lives they've inherited or the choices they make for themselves.

The sweeping family saga stretches from the era of the American Civil War through World War I, following the Trasks and the people who enter their lives as California and the country change around them.

That includes Samuel Hamilton (Ciarán Hinds), an Irish immigrant building a life and family in California; Lee (Hoon Lee), whose intelligence and compassion make him an important presence in the Trask household; and Faye (Martha Plimpton), a brothel owner whose generosity may ultimately leave her vulnerable.

More than 70 years after Steinbeck published the novel, East of Eden returns to its enduring question about family, morality and free will:

Are we destined to repeat the past, or can we choose who we become?

All seven episodes of East of Eden begin streaming globally October 1 on Netflix.