A triangular love story evolves in a peasant family in southwestern Estonian countryside around Halliste in the beginning of 1800s over a time span of 15 years.
The first act ends with the young daughter of the dead woman, appearing alone and frozen from a snowstorm.
In a bout of jealousy, Mari, blond and the embodiment of obedience to the church and their landlord, accuses Tiina of being a werewolf, first in private, then spreading the gossip, and finally in public.
This makes the head of the family repeat the accusation, which results in the girl escaping again.
In folklore the werewolves represent the cycle of legends of essentially shamanistic content - a man turning into animal and reverse - that were modified by the xenophobic in-group/out-group hatred and the witch-hunt of the Baroque era church's inquisition, fighting against the loss of power after the scientific progress in Renaissance and the Enlightenment.