A young woman's extraordinary beauty, raised in rural seclusion, becomes the center of competing claims: an older king seeks to possess her while she falls in love with a pair of exiled brothers. Their flight and brief happiness provoke the king's jealousy and political will to reclaim her. The ensuing betrayals and pursuit lead to massacre and personal devastation. The drama traces how prophetic warnings, desire, honor, and the clash between private love and royal power combine to produce inexorable sorrow.