British drama based on the novel by Thomas Hardy. Farm worker Michael Henchard (Ciarán Hinds) is travelling with his family in search of work when, in a fit of drunken madness, he auctions off both his wife Susan (Juliet Aubrey) and their baby daughter to a sailor. Years later, Henchard has become the mayor of Casterbridge and when his wife and her daughter Elizabeth Jane (Jodhi May) re-enter his life, his reaction to their return sets a disastrous chain of events in motion.