When Tess Durbeyfield, the daughter of a poor villager, learns that she might be a descendant of the ancient D'Urberville family, her family pressures her to claim kinship in order to seek a portion of the fortune. But when her meeting with young Alec D'Urberville does not go as planned, she returns home a ruined woman. A kinder man, Angel Clare, seems to offer Tess a more stable life-but she must choose whether to reveal her past to him and risk losing everything, or stay quiet and live a lie.