It's now 1934 and Robert Carne is battling to hold on to his house and his seat in the local election against new candidate Stanley Dollan, a man backed by Anthony Snaith, who is suing Carne for defamation after implicating him in Alfred Huggins' property scheme. However, when Carne's aged farm hand dies he decides to hold his funeral on voting day in order to scupper Dollan's voting chances. Sarah Burton finally loses patience with Carne's daughter Midge, and later when Carne confronts Sarah over the building applications for the school the two clash. But later he disappears and one of the labourers discovers Carne's horse at the bottom of the cliff.