Jude Fawley (Christopher Eccleston) is a stonemason with a passion for learning. He yearns to go to University, but his ambition is scuppered by an unhappy marriage to a pig farmer's daughter. When this ends, Jude moves to Christminster, where he falls in love with his cousin Sue Bridehead (Kate Winslet). Despite censure from polite society the two become lovers, but tragedy is just around the corner.