Kristin is the daughter of a prominent landowner in medieval Norway, raised on strong family ties, social pride and devout Christianity, and betrothed by her father to a neighbouring landowner's son. Her beauty provokes violent feelings around her: envy, attempted rape, murder and revenge. Taking refuge in a convent until her wedding, she meets the great passion of her life, the knight Erlend Nikulaussøn, a practised seducer who falls hopelessly in love. Their affair crosses convent walls and social boundaries alike, and grows into a scandal and then a political affair. They win each other, before a charred altar in a burnt-out church. Kristin is the daughter of a prominent landowner in medieval Norway, raised on strong family ties, social pride and devout Christianity, and betrothed by her father to a neighbouring landowner's son. Her beauty provokes violent feelings around her: envy, attempted rape, murder and revenge. Taking refuge in a convent until her wedding, she meets the great passion of her life, the knight Erlend Nikulaussøn, a practised seducer who falls hopelessly in love. Their affair crosses convent walls and social boundaries alike, and grows into a scandal and then a political affair. They win each other, before a charred altar in a burnt-out church.