The narrator of the story, a rural teacher, recalls a series of bizarre events in a village in northern Germany on the eve of World War I. The doctor was injured when he tripped over a rope while riding home. People immediately launched an investigation. The pastor punished two children who came back late and tied white ribbons for them to symbolize purity. The next day, a tenant farmer's wife died in an accident. The rural teacher found the boy Martin walking on a high place by the river. Martin claimed to want to know if God was going to punish him. The teacher met Eva, the nanny of the Baron's family, and they left a good impression on each other. Soon the Baron presided over the harvest ceremony. The son of the deceased peasant woman believed that the Baron was responsible for his mother's death and destroyed the Baron's vegetable garden to vent his anger. The possible initiators of all these vicious incidents have not been investigated, and arson and beatings against children still occur. After Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated the following year, the teacher seemed to have found some clues, but was strongly stopped by the pastor. The film won the Palme d'Or and the FIPRESCI Award at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.