A cart driver offers to save a village from an impossible task, but the price he asks is something no one is willing to pay. Christine and Grünebauer run across a field, hurrying to the man’s home as his wife, Anne, is in labor. When they reach the house, Christine, a midwife, hurries to tend to the mother while instructing her confused older daughter, Kathi, to help.
Soon, the baby girl is born. In the morning, Christine prepares to leave. When Grünebauer scolds his older daughter for standing around, Christine comments that Kathi would’ve been normal if she was born with a midwife’s help.
She then returns to her family’s home, where she greets her sister, Maria, whom she notices is also pregnant. Soon, Maria’s husband, Jakob, and their father arrive, surprised that Christine has returned. Elsewhere, Commander Hans struggles to sleep as he dreams about their king’s death.
That afternoon, Maria insists that Christine stay and find a husband. However, her sister likes traveling as more women outside their village need her help. Suddenly, Hans and his knights from the kingdom arrive.
Seeing them, Maria hurries inside as if afraid. Christine then pretends to get water from the well as she observes the men. A procession trails behind them, but the men stumble and drop the Holy Mother’s statue.
Christine hurries to help, but the priest, Father Simon, pulls her away. Still, Hans notices her and blames her for distracting the men. When the procession reaches the castle, Hans reminds the people that they built it to protect Christianity and their village.
As Father Simon blesses the castle, the villagers present their tithe. However, Hans struggles against the sun’s heat, so he orders them to put a hundred trees on the road to shade it. Christine’s father argues that they’ve already missed two harvests to build the castle, so he begs the knights to save it after the next harvest.
However, Hans asserts that they risk their lives to protect the village, so he demands to have trees shade his road within 30 days; otherwise, their blood will be spilled. Afterward, the knights toss the villagers’ offerings, giving the food that could’ve fed their families to the dogs. That evening, the men complain about how they haven’t been able to harvest food.
Christine’s father insists on fighting Han’s army since his order is already impossible and will get them killed. Fighting will give them a fair chance. Christine and a few men agree, but most are afraid, so they settle to do the impossible task.
Suddenly, a man in a carriage passes by. He offers his help as he is a cartwright and a carter, though the villagers doubt he can build carts that can haul a hundred mature trees from the hill. Still, the carter asserts that he’ll do it for a proper reward.
As Christine listens to him, she hears a strange echo in his voice. Grünebauer ridicules his carriage, and the rest laugh. The carter joins in, wondering if they’re also laughing at Grünebauer’s confused daughter.
This makes them stop, confused as to how he knew about Kathi. The carter then declares that he’ll give them three days to consider his offer. Later at night, Christine sees her father still worried about their village.
He notes that Christine is courageous like her mother, but it’s useless since it won’t satisfy the knights. He tells her to leave the village to avoid dying with them, but Christine insists on staying with her family. She asks about her mother, but her father merely reminds her that his wife died giving birth to her.
The following day, the villager’s men start digging up trees from the hill. However, the first tree they dig up breaks their pulley, causing it to fall on Christine’s father, killing him. As they mourn, Christine advises her family to mend what’s broken and move on.
Meanwhile, Father Simon confronts Hans, noting that the villagers are lost without their leader. He asks Hans to retract his order, but he refuses. The priest berates the man for building a castle for his own ego.
Still, Hans insists that a hundred trees for the castle’s road will be majestic and immortalize his name. Father Simon comments that it won’t matter when something else owns his soul. Three days later, the men struggle to bring trees across the hill.
Suddenly, Han’s right-hand man, Viktor, arrives and starts lashing the men for their poor work. Christine defends her people, so Victor grabs her. Thankfully, the man leaves, ordering the villagers to continue working.
Afterward, Jakob complains that they should’ve taken the carter’s offer, but Grünebauer thinks the man was sinister. Still, he admits that the carter could’ve helped. With that, Christine heads up the hill, where she meets the carter.
The man immediately offers his sympathy for her loss, though he adds that her father was wrong about her killing her mother. Their midwife was foolish not to have seen that her mother had another child inside her, and Christine is convinced that if she were her mother’s midwife, she would’ve lived. She admits that she sometimes wished she died instead, but the carter tells her that her mother’s sacrifice is why she must save lives now.
Given everything that he knows, Christine realizes that the carter is actually the Devil, and he wants an unchristened child as payment for saving their village. The carter doesn’t deny this, though he offers to bring twenty trees and plant them on the road by himself. Desperate, Christine agrees, so the Devil demands a kiss to seal their deal.
Christine evades his lips, making him kiss her on the cheek. With that, the Devil disappears. She wakes up on the field the next morning and hurries back home.
Maria wonders where she’d been, but Christine notes that she feels strange, as if her vision is clearer and her body is hot. She then encourages her sister that all will be well, so she plans to bring food to the men to help. Christine also reminds Maria to tell Jakob about her pregnancy.
Suddenly, Maria walks out, and her sister follows her. Maria then reveals that she doesn’t want the baby, and Christine figures that Jakob isn’t the father. Maria recalls being called into the castle to satisfy Hans’ desires.
This makes him the father. Later, as Christine joins the men, they discover that the two trees they spent days digging up have disappeared. Just then, a kid reports that the trees have been planted on the road.
Days later, Hans and his knights return, surprised that 20 trees are already shading their road. Konrad wonders when they will move their whole army there, and Viktor whispers to him that it’ll be when the Mongols arrive. However, that’ll never happen since the castle was actually built to be Hans’ tomb since the Pope won’t accept him in Jerusalem anymore.
Hans approaches them, knowing what they’re talking about. However, Viktor isn’t afraid of him. That night, Hans dreams of when the Mongols put their king’s head on a spike.
Meanwhile, Father Simon approaches the Holy Mother’s statue at the church and asks for a sign. Just then, he finds Hans, who can’t sleep due to the nightmares. Hans worries about his soul, so the priest offers to hear his confession.
Hans argues that he gave his life to the Holy Order, so he should be in good standing with the Lord. One morning, Christine sees that the shaded road is complete, and the village is celebrating. However, she warns Grünebauer about the carter’s reward.
The man doesn’t listen, thinking that they can’t be swayed by anyone now that they’ve accomplished such a task. Instead, he thanks Christine, as they would’ve died if she didn’t ask for the carter’s help. Just then, Hans arrives and gives them wine.
He then offers to waive their tithe for three years if they fill the granaries for the winter season. When he leaves, the villagers rejoice and even lift Christine, thanking her for their salvation. Their celebration continues, but Christine remains worried.
Maria confronts her about making a deal with the carter, but her sister is called in as a woman is in labor. In the morning, the woman has given birth, but Christine hesitates in giving the baby to his father. She then turns to the parents with demonic eyes, but the father pulls his son from her arms, breaking her from the spell.
Christine screams as the cheek where the Devil kissed her starts to hurt. She rushes outside and notices a black mark there. When she returns home, Christine tells her sister how she felt like she needed to take the baby away earlier.
Afterward, there was a sudden pain in her cheek, which still burns. Maria tells her to confess to the priest, but Christine suddenly snaps and spits at her. She then backs away, unable to believe what she just did.
Soon, Christine confesses about her deal with the Devil but defends that everyone was desperate to complete the task. Appalled, Father Simon mentions that he always sensed evil in Christine. He reminds her that the Devil will want an unchristened child, so Christine begs for help.
He merely tells her to pray while he takes care of the children. Father Simon also threatens her from entering his church again before throwing her out. Outside, Christine decides to tell the villagers the truth.
She suggests giving the Devil a different reward, but the rest think he doesn’t want one since he hasn’t visited. Grünebauer even insinuates that they did all the work and Christine just imagined her deal. However, Christine shows them her cheek, which has swollen.
She claims that she took this curse for them, but Grünebauer argues that she took the deal with the Devil, not them, so she should fix it alone. He tells her to leave the village, and the others agree. Heading home, Maria scolds her sister again, adding that their father would’ve been disappointed.
Christine reminds her that their father was always disappointed in her since she was born. As she follows Maria into the house, Jakob suddenly blocks her, telling her to sleep in the barn as he refuses to have her in their home. With no choice, Christine sleeps in the barn.
The next day, Christine sees her mark has taken the shape of a spider that seems to move. She hides this as people are watching her. One day, Maria gives her food as Christine has gotten sick.
Worried, Christine asks her sister to lock her in when another woman goes into labor. On another night, Christine dreams about carving the mark out of her cheek. She wakes up to Maria and Jakob bolting the barn doors as another woman goes into labor.
Christine holds herself in at first, but she soon thrashes around as the Devil commands her body. Father Simon blesses the home of the woman in labor, unaware that Christine has escaped. She arrives just as the child is born, so Father Simon hurries to christen the child while the men hold off Christine.
They beat her down, and as soon as the child is christened, the Devil escapes from her body. One morning, Christine wakes up and finds that her mark is gone. Thinking she’s free, she steps outside where Jakob is milking a goat.
Suddenly, the milk turns into blood, and spiders appear, making him panic. Across the village, spiders keep appearing in the farm animals, forcing the villagers to slaughter them, deeming them sick. Jakob and his friends beg Hans for help, but he yells for them to separate the healthy animals and kill all the spiders.
Father Simon then arrives, revealing that their shaded road was completed with the Devil’s help. This angers Hans, so he threatens Jakob and the villagers before throwing them out. While Father Simon holds a mass, Christine is outside, searching for the Devil.
Desperate, she offers herself as a reward instead, but he doesn’t answer her. At night, Christine tells the villagers to burn the shaded roadway and kill the knights to forfeit their deal. However, the men simply blame her for bringing the curse onto them, so they chase her into the woods.
The next day, Hans demands to see Christine, but no one knows where she is. Because of this, Jakob asks his wife where her sister is. Maria asserts that they wanted to make that deal, too, so Jakob pulls her hair, claiming that he’s protecting their family.
Angered, Maria pushes him away, declaring that the child she’s carrying isn’t his. Jakob beats his wife, demanding to know who’s the father, but she merely spits at his face. In an abandoned barn in the woods, Maria finds Christine.
Noticing her bruises, Christine worries that her sister was beaten to divulge her location, but Maria assures her that she won’t betray her. Maria has also changed her mind about her unborn child as she’s become fond of it. However, Jakob and his friends arrive and capture Christine while Maria screams.
Christine is soon chained in the castle’s dungeon, where Hans asks her about the spiders and how the Devil transported the trees. When she reveals that she doesn’t know, Hans demands the Devil to speak through her. However, in her demonic voice, Christine asserts that Hans was the one who brought the Devil into their village.
This makes him back off. He then considers giving the Devil a child to be done with him, but Christine reveals that the next baby to be born will be his and Maria’s. Conflicted, Hans leaves while Christine returns to her senses.
When he joins the others, Hans orders Viktor to kill Christine. Father Simon warns that it won’t end with her, so he offers another solution. The next day, Christine is forced to take a heavy stone to the Holy Mother to prove that she’s worthy of salvation.
When she struggles, the men beat her, and women pour mud on her. Still, Christine continues, and her sister encourages her. Soon, she reaches her destination, and the people quiet down.
The sun shines over her, so Father Simon blesses her. Hans even approaches her and wipes away the mud from her face. He declares that her accomplishment was a miracle, yet when he returns to his horse, it’s suddenly covered in spiders.
The horse panics and throws Hans off before running away. Because of this, he declares that saving the villagers isn’t worth it anymore. He kills one man and takes Konrad’s horse to flee back to the castle.
That evening, Maria tends to her sister and offers to let her stay while she deals with her husband. Unbeknownst to them, the men decide that one child’s life isn’t worth risking the entire village. With that, Jakob suggests taking his wife’s.
The next day, Maria finds her sister hanging herself in the barn. She quickly grabs an ax to save her, but Christine worries about Maria’s child. To give her courage, Maria gives Christine their mother’s rosary.
Just then, Maria feels pain as she’s going into labor. That evening, Christine helps her sister give birth, but the Devil possesses her again. With no choice, Marie hits her over the head, refusing to let her child get taken.
Meanwhile, Father Simon begs for forgiveness, as he has decided to abandon the village to save himself. Soon, Maria gives birth by herself, but as she holds the baby, the men come for it, excusing that it was conceived with a different man; therefore, it can be sacrificed. The mother crawls weakly, begging for her son back.
As the priest is about to leave, the villagers suddenly flock to the church to pray as the others make the exchange. Meanwhile, Hans learns that they’re sacrificing Maria’s baby. When he learns that it’s a boy, he reconsiders, so Konrad assures him that this will end the plague.
At their home, Maria desperately wakes Christine up. When she does, she suddenly chokes her sister, demanding where the child is. Maria reveals that Jakob took him, so Christine hurries to find them.
While the men take the baby to the shaded road, Father Simon prays with the villagers. Christine catches up to the men, warning them that giving up the child will just be the beginning. Soon, they’ll face more hardships and will consider sacrificing another to save themselves.
However, the Devil has arrived. With the men distracted, Christine goes to take the baby. Afraid, Jakob’s friends run off while the Devil reminds Christine about their agreement.
He approaches her, promising that she’ll be free afterward. Maria then arrives, but Jakob stops her from retrieving her baby. As if in a trance, Christine puts the baby at the Devil’s feet.
He smiles, but she brandishes her mother’s rosary and christens the child in front of him. Afterward, Christine falls back and twitches on the ground before the Devil leaves, disappointed. When Maria checks, Christine has disappeared.
Instead, a large black spider crawls away and attacks Jakob, killing him. In the church, Father Simon tries to sneak away while everyone is praying but sees the large spider arriving. He dies, and the spider wreaks havoc in the church.
The next day, Hans and his knights learn that most of the villagers have been killed by a spider, so the survivors barricade themselves in their homes. The knights also barricade the castle, but Viktor refuses to hide like a coward, so he rides into the village. There, he finds Kathi tending to her sister while her parents have perished.
Just then, the spider appears and kills him too. Days go by, and the spider reaches the castle, killing Konrad. Thinking he’s the only one left, Hans confesses that he’s to blame for this, so he begs to end his suffering.
As Hans screams, Maria tends to her children in her home. The spider soon arrives, and she hears Christine begging for help. This makes Maria realize that the spider is Christine.
Sympathizing with her sister, Maria uncovers the hole in the post where Christine hides her medicine, telling her that it’s her home. When Christine goes inside, Maria covers the post and hammers down a peg to seal it.
