Based on the best-selling novel by Colleen McCullough, the 1983 miniseries The Thorn Birds was set in Australia and covered the life of Ralph de Bricassart (Richard Chamberlain), a Roman Catholic priest engaged in a constant struggle between his calling and his carnal desires. In part two, which aired March 28, 1983 -- and which, like the subsequent third episode, runs two hours -- a cataclysmic brush fire destroys Mary Carson's (Barbara Stanwyck) ranch. Later, having already succumbed to their mutual passion, Father Ralph and Meggie (Rachel Ward)experience an uncomfortable reunion and later still the politically ambitious Ralph forms a strong and beneficial alliance with Archbishop Contini-Verchese (Christopher Plummer), one of Rome's most influential religious leaders.