Set in the rural West Country in Victorian era England, the story features Bathsheba Everdene (Julie Christie), a beautiful, headstrong, independently-minded woman who inherits her uncle's farm and decides to manage it herself. This engenders some disapproval from the local farming community. She employs a former neighbour, Gabriel Oak (Alan Bates), as a shepherd; rejected by her earlier as a suitor, Gabriel lost his own flock after one of his dogs drove them off a steep cliff.