Picnic at Hanging Rock

In the final decade of the 19th century, Hester Appleyard - a beautiful, mysterious widow - arrives in Macedon, Australia. She pays cash for the local white elephant - a formal mansion isolated out in the bush.

Hester's three star pupils and a governess have disappeared. Led by dogged Sergeant Bumpher, local men search for the missing ladies. Not a trace to be found. Faced with a mystery, the locals resort to speculation.

It is the Rothschild heiress Irma who has returned, remarkably unharmed. As she recovers from her nine day ordeal at the Fitzhuberts' summer mansion, she claims to remember little about the day of the picnic and nothing since.

Hester takes the remaining girls to church, as a display of normality. She leaves the young orphan, Sara, behind, as punishment for ongoing defiance.

French governess Mademoiselle is plagued by guilt. She was in charge of the girls at the picnic. At the college, more students are being withdrawn, and the "dark stain" of the unsolved mystery continues to spread.

It is the Christmas holidays before the picnic, when Sara joined Miranda on her family's cattle station. Sara is the happiest she has ever been but Miranda is furious at having to return to the college.