Synopsis: In Sweden, priest Gösta Berling is defrocked and publicly humiliated due to his fondness for drink. Gösta is soon hired by a countess to tutor her daughter, in hopes that he will eventually marry the girl and leave the family estate to the preferred, if foolish, son Henrik. When Henrik returns home from Italy with his young wife, Elisabeth, she falls for the former priest -- who then flees to a neighboring mansion to join a group known as the Knights of Ekeby.