Masterpiece Classic It's 1934, and Sarah Burton, the new headmistress of Kiplington Girls High, is returning to her native, conservative roots and bringing with her a fiery determination to empower her girls and yank the sorely outdated school into ... (more)the future. But everything about Sarah seems to bring disapproval from the stern and brooding landowner, Robert Carne. Oppressed by overwhelming debt and his wife's absence, he is forced to send his beloved but unstable daughter, Midge, to Kiplington Girls High, where it is inevitable that he and Sarah shall clash swords again. The Depression has hit hardest in the local slums where Sarah's other standout student, Lydia Holly, is trying to overcome the squalor that surrounds her. Soon, a scheme to provide sanitary housing pits Sarah's ally, Joe Astell, against Carne. Carne's animosity toward Sarah is alleviated, however temporary, when the two share an intimate encounter at the very boundary of life and death.