The plot tracks Eneko (Sagardoy), son to a Basque chieftain who died in battle, who journeys into the forest to find the body of his father, guided by pagan woman Irati (Azkarate).

Though he is nominally a Christian, his concern regarding a coming host of Franks under Charlemagne leads him to enter Mari's abode to ask for the goddess' aid.

In the thick of battle, Eneko performs a ritual slitting his own throat, causing giant boulders to rain from the sky, crushing the Franks.

Eneko watches as his father is buried according to the ancient ways, including the ritual execution of two prisoners from the battle.

On the way to his grandfather's fort, he encounters Irati, who has attacked a group of men sent to chop down the forest under orders from Belasko, a local chieftain.

After making the men let her go, he arrives at the fort, where he reunites with his mother; his ailing grandfather rambles about a hidden treasure hoard, and asks to be buried with his son according to the Christian rite, before dying in Eneko's arms.

The local chieftains convene in the castle, and have Luxa, who tried to stop the exhumation as blasphemy, imprisoned; Eneko, whose claim to the lordship of the valley has been contested by Belasko, visits her in the dungeon, where she reveals his father's body is in Mari's cave deep in the forest, together with the hoard taken from the Franks after the battle.

Deep in the cave, Eneko finds Mari and makes a bargain with the goddess: she will return his father's body, in exchange for the lives of Belasko and his cronies.

With his father's sword recovered from the hoard, Eneko returns to the fort, where he tries to lure Belasko into coming with him to the cave, assuring him there is no danger there.

The soldiers and common folk run for shelter, and Eneko sees a ram take Irati upon its back, and fly her into the storm.

[12] It was shot in the Pyrenees (Navarre and the province of Huesca), including locations such as the Irati Forest,[10] and the Castle of Loarre.

[21] Júlia Olmo of Cineuropa described Irati as a "Basque Lord of the Rings, but with a lot less money", and complimented the level of ambition, also writing how it "speaks poetically about timeless human issues", such as "weight of roots, the idea of loyalty and honour, the meaning of identity, the struggle for a place and the value of that struggle, the meaning of faith, the classic concept of 'the beautiful death' (filling one's life with deeds to achieve eternal glory, to be remembered and loved in eternity), the fear of forgetting, the presence of death in life, the search for your origins and the price of that search".