In 985 A.D. the life of a Viking thrall in newly settled Greenland is harsh and unforgiving. Katla, a proud, beautiful slave girl, is ostracized because of her arrogant ways and the mystical rosary beads she wears. She survives a violent rape only through the compassion of Thorbjorg, a pagan seeress and shaman. But Katla's mure daughter--concieved during the rape and reared by Torbjorg to be a shaman--maliciously exploits the pagan teachings to exact revenge on her mother for abandoning her.