Season 1 finale. Following a four-week journey from Paris to Copenhagen, Lister finds acceptance and appreciation in Danish high society, stepping out of her sartorial comfort zone to attend a birthday ball hosted by Queen Marie. When difficult news arrives from Shibden, Lister is faced with the decision to stay in Europe or go back home. In Scotland, a shocking discovery about Captain Sutherland leads Ann Walker to make a bold resolution about her future.
Before setting off for Europe to escape her heartache, Lister invites Christopher Rawson to Shibden to rebuke him for publicly insulting Marian. Later, Lister comes up with a bold strategy to mine her own coal and expose the Rawson brothers' industrial-scale theft. In Scotland, Ann Walker becomes increasingly distressed when she discovers that her brother-in-law, Captain Sutherland, plans to marry her off to his penniless cousin.
Ann Walker's mental state is in a downward spiral, so Lister is forced to contemplate traveling to Europe alone, despite her family's warnings that doing so will raise eyebrows. Aunt Anne and Captain Lister endure another visit from the irritating Mr. Abbott, while Marian remains peeved that her sister is absent once again. Lister reopens her coal-mine negotiations with the powerful Rawson brothers. Thomas Sowden's secret casts a cloud over his budding relationship with Suzannah Washington.
Reverend Ainsworth arrives in Halifax and, with encouragement from Mrs. Priestley, sets his sights on Ann Walker. Meanwhile, Lister presses on with the transformation of her estate, but her ambitious plans threaten to lead her into trouble.
Dr. Belcombe confirms that Lister is the perfect tonic for Ann Walker's nervous disorder. When news of a friend's death arrives, Ann's desperate reaction makes Lister suspect that she has secrets of her own.
Lister confides her hopes for a future with Ann Walker to her aunt, as Mrs. Priestley's inkling about the two women's relationship presents a threat. Meanwhile, John Booth is surprised at his own romantic success.
Lister begins a playful but dangerous courtship of Ann Walker; Lister's plan to excavate her coal mines brings her into the path of local magistrate Christopher Rawson and his brother Jeremiah; Lister's servant offers a solution to Eugénie's problem.
Series premiere. In 1932 Halifax, Anne Lister returns to Shibden Hall, having discovered that her would-be companion, the aristocratic Vere Hobart, has accepted a marriage proposal from a man. Despite her affection for her elderly aunt, Lister is frustrated by the shabbiness of her ancestral home and finds her father and long-suffering sister difficult to live with.