A young boy is seen playing with a crying infant before being called back to his house, leaving the baby in its basket. Soon after, an unnamed woman picks up the crying child and embarks on a long walk up a mountain. As she ascends, the baby stops crying, and she gently removes her rosary, placing it around the child’s neck. Reaching the top of a waterfall, she pauses as the baby begins to cry again. Without a word, she throws the infant down the falls, killing it. She then crosses herself and proceeds to a church or prison tower. There, she knocks on the door and confesses her crime to the person who answers.
The scene shifts to nighttime, revealing the decapitated body of the woman seated in a chair, with her head placed in a cage behind her. Her body is missing several toes and fingers. As the camera lingers, an unseen figure takes a knife and cuts off one of her remaining fingers, wrapping it carefully in a cloth.
The next day, Agnes (Anja Plaschg) is seen in the forest, singing, playing with insects, and gathering flowers and berries to weave into a crown. Her mother and brother call out to her, reminding her that she will be late for her wedding. She returns home, where her family is busy loading her wedding dowry onto a cart. Together, they push the cart through the woods to a nearby town, where Agnes marries Wolf (David Scheid). The wedding celebration is joyful, with the villagers lifting Agnes above their heads as she laughs.
Later, the men of the village engage in a traditional game where a blindfolded man is spun around and given a large staff, which he uses to try and kill a live rooster. Amid the lively dancing and festivities, Wolf takes Agnes aside, telling her he has a surprise. He blindfolds her and leads her away from the village to reveal a house he’s bought as a wedding gift. However, Agnes is less than thrilled, as the house is far from her family and just down the hill from Wolf’s mother. She expresses concern about how they will repay the loan Wolf took out to buy the house, but he reassures her that he plans to pay it back with earnings from lumber.