Based on thirteenth-century folklore, Ingmar Bergman's film explores themes of religion & guilt in a medieval setting. A young girl is raped & murdered by three goatherds while en route to church. The girl's killers then take refuge at a farm, not knowing that it is owned by the parents of the girl they have just killed. All is revealed when the mother finds her daughter's bloodied robe & she realises what has happened. The father then avenges his daughter's death causing a spring to bubble up on the spot she was killed.