In the early 1900s in a small Carpathian village, Ivan is saved from a falling tree by his brother, who is killed as a result. A short time later, Ivan's father is murdered in a fight, and afterwards the boy and his mother are forced to subsist in poverty. From childhood Ivan grows close to Marichka, whose father was responsible for his father's death. As they grow up, they fall in love, though his poverty and the feud separating their families make it impossible for them to marry. One day while Ivan tends his sheep, Marichka, attempting to rescue a lamb, falls from a cliff and drowns in the river below. Ivan is overwhelmed by grief and grows apathetic toward all about him. Eventually, he is persuaded to marry the sensual Palagna, but he remains haunted by memories of Marichka. Palagna visits the village sorcerer for help in reclaiming Ivan from the past, but she eventually yields to his charms. As Ivan tries to defend his family honor, the sorcerer strikes him with an axe. Dying, Ivan makes his way to the river where Marichka died and reaches out to her vision as it appears before him. The entire village mourns his death in a traditional pagan ritual.