Episode 1, tx.22/1/1978

Susan and her daughter Elizabeth-Jane come to a road sign. Susan remembers when she first walked along that same road, eighteen years earlier. She and her husband Michael Henchard, an itinerant hay trusser, and their daughter Elizabeth-Jane walked down the road, looking for work and lodgings. Although told that there was no work to be found, Michael insisted that they go to Weydon-Priors for the Fair.

They went to a pavilion for food and drink. Henchard got drunk and, frustrated by his wife's nagging, offered her up for sale. Those around him initially thought that it was all a joke, but Henchard actually meant it. Susan, in anger, agreed to go along with it if he insisted. Newsome, a sailor, offered five guineas for the woman and child and bought them.

Susan tells her daughter that Henchard is a distant relative; now that Newsome has been lost at sea she is trying to find him again. At the fair, she discovers that when Henchard sobered up he regretted what he had done and left word that if she were ever to return looking for him, he could be found in Casterbridge.

Susan and her daughter learn that Henchard is now rich and the Mayor of Casterbridge. They obtain lodgings at a local inn, where Henchard is having a function. To the men around the table he introduces his new manager, Donald Farfrae. Susan can't bring herself to talk to Henchard, but the next day Elizabeth-Jane is sent to tell him that they are in town. She arrives just as Henchard is showing Donald around his home and business. He confides in him that he has been lonely and is planning to marry, and that he is keen for Donald to develop the business, as it is getting too big for him to manage on his own.

Elizabeth-Jane tells Henchard who she is and that she and her mother are staying at the inn. He writes a note for Susan and given the girl five guineas. That night, Susan and Henchard meet. He asks why she ever went through with her marriage to Newsome, and she tells him that it was the only honourable thing to do as she had promised to stand by the agreement. Henchard insists that they must marry again without admitting their shameful past to Elizabeth-Jane and live once more as a family.