Jane Eyre (Anna Paquin) is a young orphan girl who has been cast out by her Aunt Mrs Reed (Fiona Shaw) and has sent to be raised in a strict school for girls named Lowood. After 10 years of being mistreated it is at the school that she learns to be a teacher and starts to look for a job outside the school walls. A housekeeper at Thornfield Hall named Mrs Fairfax (Joan Plowright) soon answers to her advertisement. Jane finds her self falling for the master Mr Rochester (William Hurt) as he is for her, but she soon finds out he has a dark and terrible secret that may tear them apart.