The Thorn Birds

Mary decides to celebrate her 72nd birthday with the largest party Drogheda has seen in 50 years. Her servants, particularly Minnie and Cat, gossip superstitiously about her birth sign, convinced her Scorpio nature explains her manipulative ways. Meanwhile, preparations for the party consume the entire homestead: silver is polished, lawns are scythed, verandas cleaned, and the chapel is reconverted into a reception room. Excitement spreads across the district, as guests anticipate the lavish food, music, and company promised for the grand occasion.

Amidst the preparations, Mary writes an important letter at her desk, having already rehearsed every word in her mind for years. As she finishes, she glances out the window and stiffens in anger at the sight of Ralph and Meggie walking together. Ralph has been teaching Meggie to ride, outfitting her with boots and jodhpurs, insisting that as the heir’s daughter she must learn. Though the Clearys feel grateful, Mary seethes with jealousy and suspicion over their growing closeness, sensing emotions at play that others refuse to acknowledge.

Mary’s bitterness deepens when she watches Ralph and Meggie stroll easily across the lawns. Their casual intimacy enrages her, feeding the venom she feels toward both of them. Convinced that no man, not even Ralph de Bricassart, could ignore the blossoming beauty of the young girl, Mary curses her own helplessness. Unable to ride herself anymore, she cannot join them or interfere directly, forced instead to observe from her window.

Determined to secure her revenge, Mary summons two workers to her drawing room. She instructs them to witness her signing a document and to write their own names and addresses beneath it, ensuring her action carries legal weight. After rewarding them with money and extracting their silence, she drafts a second letter, this time struggling over every word. When she finishes, she seals it carefully with red wax.

As the night of the party approaches, the Clearys prepare for the event with excitement and pride. Mary has spared no expense outfitting them in formal wear: Paddy, Bob, and Jack wear full white-tie evening dress, while Fiona dons an elegant blue-grey gown with matching accessories. However, Meggie draws the most attention, appearing for the first time as a young woman in a pale pinkish-grey gown embroidered with tiny rosebuds. Paddy, feeling both proud and sorrowful, realizes that his little girl has grown up and resolves to let her enjoy the night without reproach.

When the Clearys arrive at the homestead, Mary greets them in an absurd bridal outfit featuring white satin and lace. Although she does not say anything, Fiona finds the outfit particularly grotesque. Despite her age and bloated figure, Mary commands the evening with an iron will, pairing herself with Paddy while assigning Ralph to escort Fiona and the boys to attend Meggie. As the party fills with influential Catholic families from across the district, everyone indulges in dancing, feasting, and drinking, pleased to enjoy such luxury under Mary Carson’s roof.

Throughout the festivities, Ralph deliberately avoids Meggie, acutely aware of the attention their interaction would draw. Though it hurts Meggie deeply, he forces himself to ignore her for both their sakes, knowing gossip could easily taint her reputation. He watches her from a distance, torn between pride in her beauty and despair over her growing maturity. Inside, he wishes to turn back time and preserve the innocent child he cherishes, but he knows he cannot stop her transformation into a woman.

Around three in the morning, Mary pulls Ralph aside, asking him to help her upstairs. Instead of leading him toward the staircase, she unlocks the door to her private drawing room and brings him inside. In the dim light of a ruby-glass lamp, Mary announces that she has decided to die that night. She insists that Ralph retrieve a sealed envelope from her desk and swear not to open it until after he sees her dead. Ralph gives his word. Mary taunts him about his life as a priest and demands a kiss on the mouth, which Ralph refuses. She mocks Ralph bitterly, then climbs the stairs with his help, leaving him holding the envelope she made him swear to open after her death.

After Mary retires, Ralph leaves the house and walks across the lawn into the humid darkness. He stops to look up at the stars and ponders the strange letter Mary gave him. As he crosses the grounds again, he hears someone crying in the cemetery and finds Meggie sitting among the graves in her party dress. Ralph sits beside her and gives her his handkerchief to dry her tears. When she admits she feels hurt that he ignored her all evening, Ralph explains that if he had paid her attention at the party, gossip would have spread, damaging both their reputations. He reminds her that she has grown up and that people would no longer see their closeness as innocent. Meggie listens quietly and agrees. She tells him that she wishes people knew him better, so they would never think such things. Ralph kisses her hands and sends her home.

In the late afternoon, Mrs. Smith wakes Ralph and tells him that Mary is dead. Still groggy from the day’s oppressive heat, Ralph hurriedly dresses in his priest’s clothes, throws on a purple stole, and gathers the sacred items needed for the Last Rites. Although he suspects Mary may have committed suicide, he proceeds with the sacrament to avoid any investigation that might cause complications. Entering her sealed, humid bedroom, he finds the body in an advanced state of decomposition, covered in flies and starting to rot. Fighting nausea, he completes the rites with Mrs. Smith’s help, orders an immediate coffin be made, and instructs her to burn his fouled clothes. Returning to his room, he changes into riding clothes and takes out the sealed letter Mary had forced him to swear to open after seeing her dead.

Sitting at his window as the sun sets over Drogheda, Ralph opens the envelope and reads Mary’s letter. She explains that the second document inside is a new will, legally witnessed, and that it revokes her previous will held by Harry Gough. She claims she has altered the will without Harry’s help to ensure secrecy and boasts that she is tempting Ralph as Satan tempted Christ, knowing that her bequest will cause him agony. She reveals that her fortune amounts to over 13 million pounds and forces Ralph to decide whether to present the new will for probate or destroy it to preserve Paddy’s inheritance. Trembling, Ralph resists the urge to burn it without reading the new will, but curiosity compels him to continue.

The second document is Mary’s new will: she leaves all her money and properties to the Catholic Church, on the condition that Ralph personally administer the estate and name his own successor. She sets terms to protect Paddy and his family, granting them lifetime residence on Drogheda, secure employment, and protection for future generations. Special bequests include pensions and cash gifts to Mrs. Smith, Minnie, and Cat, and a private annual stipend of ten thousand pounds for Ralph. Though nauseated, Ralph recognizes the brilliance of Mary’s scheme and how thoroughly she trapped him between his ambition and his affections for the Clearys.

Ralph weeps for the first time since boyhood, feeling that Mary has crushed his bond with Paddy, Fiona, and Meggie. She has ensured that the Clearys will not starve or lose their home, but they will never rise socially. Though he feels tortured, Ralph accepts that he will submit the new will and use the fortune to rise within the Church, as Mary intended. Resolving to begin preparations, he visits Mary’s corpse one last time, feeling only revulsion as he gazes upon her fly-infested, bloated remains.

Before departing Drogheda, Ralph encounters Paddy, who is distraught and working on funeral arrangements. Ralph orders him to hasten the burial to prevent further decay. In Gilly, Ralph visits Harry Gough, informs him of Mary’s death, and hands over the new will. Harry reads it and reacts with a mixture of admiration and outrage, accusing Ralph of benefiting at Paddy’s expense. Ralph calmly insists that Mary had the right to dispose of her property as she chose. When Harry insists that Paddy should contest the will, Ralph agrees but suspects Paddy will not do so.

At the funeral the next morning, the mourners are suspicious but polite, many already aware through gossip of the dramatic change in Mary’s bequest. Ralph conducts the Requiem Mass with cold dignity, referring to Mary as a pillar of the Church she loved “more than any living being.” The stench of Mary’s decaying body and the overwhelming scent of the roses masking it fill the reception room. After the burial, the Cleary family gathers with Harry to hear the will read. Though Harry urges them to contest it, Paddy and his sons refuse, feeling grateful that they will still live and work on Drogheda comfortably. After the reading, Paddy publicly thanks Ralph for his kindness and absolves him of any blame, which wounds Ralph more deeply than any accusation could.