An alpine village shortly before the First World War. Widowed forester Rufman has little sympathy for his sons Friedel and Elias. Both find it difficult to cope with themselves. One day, a stranger appears whose curiosity confuses the suspicious villagers. Only Elias feels attracted to him. When a murder takes place in the village, suspicion soon falls on the forester's boys.

A young man, Peter, returns to Austria in search of his heritage. There he visits the castle of an ancestor, a sadistic Baron who was cursed to a violent death by a witch whom the Baron had burned at the stake. Peter reads aloud the incantation that causes Baron Blood to return and continue his murderous tortures.

During France’s Hundred Years’ War, a Parisian student seeks refuge by the sea and falls in love with an aristocrat. As they find shelter in a monastery, their romance is overshadowed by the ongoing conflict between peasants and noblemen.