Poor farmer Durbeyfield has been told by the village parson that he has noble relatives : the D`Urbervilles. His wife decides to send their daughter Tess to them in order to make a claim on their family`s ancestral home in Wessex. Alec D`Urberville, the son of the squire, gives the girl a job but he also seduces her. Tess is soon pregnant but the baby dies and Alec forsakes her.