A heartbroken Retty does not attend the wedding. As a small but joyful ceremony takes place, she tries to drown herself. Tess and Angel leave for their honeymoon, to be spent at an old mansion once owned by the ancient d'Urberville family. What they hoped would be a romantic evening is interrupted and darkened by news of Retty's attempted suicide. A suddenly troubled Angel decides it is time for them to make known their former transgressions to each other. Solemnly he informs Tess of a wrongdoing in his past and is surprised when she readily forgives him and seems almost pleased with the confession. Tess has misjudged the situation. She thinks that if she forgives him he will forgive her. So she tells him about Alec d'Urberville - the whole story... Angel is appalled. He tells Tess that she is no longer the woman he loved. They will remain married but must part. Both go home to their respective families. To the fury of her mother and father, Tess reveals all that has happened. Angel cannot be so honest with his own parents. He says that he and Tess have merely separated for a while and that he is going to Brazil to set up a farm there. On his journey from home Angel meets Izzy, Tess's friend. He asks Izzy if she will accompany him on his new adventure, but when she tells him that nobody could love him more than Tess, he acknowledges the folly of his request and sets off for Brazil on his own. Unable to stand being at home any longer, Tess sets out for work over the winter. She finds a job on a bleak farm run by Groby, the cruel bailiff, but at least she has comfort in the companionship of her two friends, Izzy and Marion. Izzy persuades her to swallow her pride and seek out Angel's parents for help. Tess goes to Angel's village, but her nerve fails her when she overhears Angel's brothers discussing his ill-advised marriage and she runs away. On her journey back to the farm, she hears someone preaching in a tent and is horrified to discover that the preacher is Alec d'Urberville. Alec tells her that he has found God and is a changed man. She responds by informing him that she has had a child and that the child is now dead. She says that they must never see each other again. But, inflamed by meeting her again and by her beauty, Alec turns up at Groby's farm and proposes marriage. Tess now reveals to Alec that she is married already to a man she loves who is far far away. Alec remains skeptical, and is determined to have her. In desperation, Tess at last writes to Angel, begging him to come and rescue her from a terrible fate. But Angel is in Brazil, dreadfully ill and close to death.