An affecting human drama of love, loss, and strength unfolds against the backdrop of World War I. The women of the Paridier farm, under the deft hand of Hortense, the family's matriarch, must grapple with the workload while the men are off at the front. New tools allow the women to triumph over the land, newfound independence is acquired, yet emotions are stirred, especially when the men return.

"In 1851, France's autocratic President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte has ordered the arrest of all the men of a remote mountain farming village following a Republican uprising. The women spend years in total isolation, forced to tend the crops themselves. Some women have lost their husbands; others, like the shy but inwardly strong Violette, suddenly have no chance of experiencing physical love or motherhood. The women take an oath: if a man comes, they...

Bathsheba Everdene is a willful, passionate girl who is never satisfied with anything less than a man's complete and helpless adoration. She captures the lives and loves of three very different men. Gabriel Oak is a sheep farmer who is captivated by her beauty and proposes marriage. William Boldwood is an older, prosperous man who had been a confirmed bachelor. Sergeant Frank Troy is a handsome, but reckless swordsman who's given to sudden fits of...