No one escapes suspicion when a famine afflicts a medieval German village. Eager to identify a scapegoat, the starving residents of Tierkinddorf fall under the spell of an itinerant friar claiming to be able to extract confessions of witchcraft from transgressors. When elderly Güde Müller begins to experience blackouts and confusing visions, her daughter-in-law Irmeltrud seizes the opportunity to rid herself of the burden of her husband's mother. In an ironic twist, the villagers turn not only on Güde but on Irmeltrud as well.