In the small mountainous village of mid-nineteenth-century Artotina, Phocis, the wealthy landowner and self-assured chief-shepherd, Mitros, saves from certain death the wide-eyed and inexperienced sheep-herder, Liakos. As fair Kroustallo, Liakos' secret childhood sweetheart, receives the news of his rescue, stalwart Mitros gives her a golden cross, as an innocent token of his admiration, and much to his dismay, he sparks a bitter conflict between him and the love-smitten young man. Now, disgraced Liakos is about to lose his one true love forever. Are the star-crossed lovers doomed to be apart?