Stark adaptation of Thomas Hardy's tragic novel about a 19th-century stonemason whose aspirations are thwarted by unyielding social convention. When his marriage ends, the craftsman finds his dreams of self-improvement rekindled when he settles in a university town. He falls in love with his independent-minded cousin, but, failing to gain a place at university, finds his options diminishing to a point of remorseless despair. Show less