Both bewildered and suspicious because of Jane's odd behaviour, Mrs Reed decides to send Jane to a school. Several months after the incident, a strange person pays his visit to Gateshead House. Mr Brocklehurst (John Wood), a puritanical clergyman, directs Lowood School, a charity institution for orphans, fifty miles from Gateshead. Despite Mrs Reed's defaming description of Jane's character, Brocklehurst accepts her as a pupil for his school, persuaded by his own moral mission. Nevertheless, Jane is so delighted at escaping her aunt's repressive rule that, in an ardent speech, she accuses her of her cruelty and announces that she would never return to Gateshead in her life:

"I dislike you the worst of anybody in the world except John Reed..."

At first, Jane has problems submitting to this system of rules and feels isolated. But then, she meets Helen Burns (Leanne Rowe), a skilful, calm and devout girl who, nevertheless, does not meet her teachers' benevolence, just

One year in spring, typhus rages among the inmates of Lowood. Jane gets to know that Helen suffers from consumption, and one night, she slips into Helen's sickroom. The next morning, the two are found there, embraced in their sleeping. Helen is dead, a victim of the bad living conditions...

In the years that follow, Jane makes every effort to adapt to the life at Lowood. After finishing school, she works another two years at Lowood as a teacher. At the age of eighteen, Jane (now played by Charlotte Gainsbourg) assumes the post of a governess to Adèle Varens (Joséphine Serre), the young ward of Edward Rochester (William Hurt) at Thornfield Hall. Rochester shows interest in Jane, his ironical behaviour challenging her shy and guarded character. Jane, on her part, wonders at his enigmatic confessions about his unhappy past. And at night, a strange laughter resounds through the sinister walls of Thornfield Hall...

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