The film begins with a shot of a rocky outcrop, shaped like a human head, apparently gazing out over the Carpathian Mountains.

A voice-over explains that the expansion of Roman power is beginning to threaten the borders of the kingdom of Dacia under its "enigmatic" ruler Burebista.

The high priest Deceneus convinces the Dacian lords to swear allegiance to Burebista as king of a unified Dacia.

Messengers from Mithridates VI of Pontus and from Greece arrive to ask Burebista's help in resisting the advance of Roman forces.

While there he meets his former girlfriend Lydia, who has been forced to marry the arrogant Roman aristocrat Gaius Antonius Hybrida.

He learns from a messenger that Mithridates has killed himself to avoid being captured by Pompey, but is given a letter in which the dead king encourages him to continue to resist Rome.

The Boii, a Celtic tribe, raids Dacia, capturing and enslaving villagers with the help of a Dacian traitor.

Forced to fight, Burebista is worried that the war will weaken both sides, giving Caesar an opportunity to invade.

The film was made to coincide with celebrations of the founding of a unified state, presented as the model for modern Romania.

"[1]Doru Pop argues that Ceaușescu's "national-communist ideology" needed the support of claims that he "descended from a long line of Romanian (!)