In this first episode, we trace Jane’s early life from the rolling countryside of Dorset and Norfolk to the dazzling but deeply restrictive world of Britain’s upper classes. Married off at just seventeen to the much older and politically powerful Edward Law, 2nd Baron Ellenborough, Jane quickly discovers the brutal realities of marriage, reputation, and female dependence in the early nineteenth century.

What follows is a whirlwind of affairs, scandal, gossip, and public humiliation that would make Jane one of the most infamous women in Europe. Her romances with diplomats, noblemen, and foreign aristocrats scandalize Victorian society and ultimately destroy her marriage — but they also force her into exile from the only world she has ever known.