At a dance, Ross's spinster cousin, Verity, falls in love with a disgraced sea captain, Captain Andrew Blamey, who is falsely accused of murdering his wife. Ross manages to obtain financing for his mine from other businessmen. Ross hopes to go into business with Francis to reopen a mine, but Francis declines after tensions between him, his wife Elizabeth, and Ross are fanned by business rival George Warleggan. Bailiffs are closing mines, putting hundreds out of work. Ross's uncle tries to persuade him to leave Cornwall Ross becomes more determined to stay and work his inheritance. Demelza has left home after being beaten by her father. He goes to market to sell some of his family possessions and comes across an urchin, Demelza Carne, being attacked by ruffians who want to steal her dog to use it in a dog fight. Ross goes to his own home, Nampara, and wakes the servants Prudie and Jud.

He calls at Trenwith, his uncle Charles' home, to discover his inheritance in ruins and his sweetheart Elizabeth betrothed to another - his cousin Francis Poldark. Two years after being injured in fighting in Virginia in 1781, Ross Vennor Poldark, a British veteran of the American War of Independence, returns home to Cornwall in October 1783 to discover his father Joshua had died six months past.

Poldark season 2 episode 9