Two monks from the order of St. Francis, Friars Ambrosius and Romanus are sent to the monastery in Berchtesgaden, high in the Bavarian Alps. In the cold of the village, Ambrosius meets the beautiful and pitiful Benedicta, who is scorned by all for being the hangman's daughter. He soon earns the ire of the villagers, along with the hatred of the son of the town's most powerful man who desires Benedicta in his bed.