The Mayor of Casterbridge

Michael Henchard sells his wife to a sailor at a country fair, while drunk. As the years pass, he prospers and becomes mayor of the town. Then his wife and daughter come to live in the town....

The jealous Henchard has sacked Donald Farfrae and forbidden him to see Elizabeth-Jane. When his wife Susan dies it is just the start of his troubles.

Henchards secret is out. Denounced as a wife-seller and with his business in trouble his discovery that Lucetta has married Farfrae completes his humiliation.

Lucetta has died, the victim of an evil trick. Henchards conciliation with Elizabeth is short-lived: when her father comes to claim her Henchard pretends she is dead.