In the late 19th century, Danish priest Lucas Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson is dispatched to Iceland—then a Danish territory—to oversee the construction of a church in a Danish settlement. He brings along a camera to document the new land and travels by boat with a small group of Icelandic laborers and a translator, the latter serving as his only ally and link to the rest of the crew. The party is led by a wary guide named Ragnar Friðrik Friðriksson, whose suspicion of Danes casts a chill over the voyage. The translator goes with them, Hilmar Guðjónsson, ensuring that language isn’t a barrier to survival and cooperation.
On the journey, they confront a wide, furious river that Ragnar warned would be impassable, yet Lucas insists they ford it. The crossing ends in tragedy: the translator and a heavy cross plunge from their horses, and the translator drowns. They bury him in a shallow grave that is soon unearthed by the rising tide. Grief-stricken, Lucas retreats into himself, praying for a chance to return to Denmark. He nearly collapses from exhaustion, fainting and needing to be carried the rest of the way on a makeshift stretcher.
Eventually they reach the settlement, where Lucas is cared for by Carl Ingimundur Grétarsson and his daughters, Anna Victoria Carmen Sonne and Ida Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir. The villagers come together to build the church, and life centers around its construction and the rites held within. At a wedding, Lucas declines to perform the ceremony until the church is finished, and the reception buzzes with games and rivalry. In a tense moment, Carl challenges Lucas to wrestle, Lucas wins, and he is then forced to face Ragnar in a showdown that crackles with underlying hostility.
As Lucas begins to form bonds with Ida and experiences a growing draw toward Anna, misfortune strikes again: his horse goes missing and is later revealed to be dead. When the church is finally completed, Ragnar seeks a final photograph of Lucas before he leaves. Lucas refuses and lashes out, insulting Ragnar in return. Ragnar responds in Danish with a confession—he had killed Lucas’s horse—and the truth shatters Lucas’s restraint. In a frenzied burst, he attacks Ragnar, slamming his head against the rocks and killing him. With Ragnar gone, Lucas returns to Anna and discards his camera, and the two nevertheless consummate their relationship.
Carl warns Anna not to let Lucas’s presence endanger her. During Lucas’s first service in the finished church, Ragnar’s dog disrupts the ceremony by barking outside. When Lucas goes out to quiet the noisy animal, he slips in mud and soils his robes and face. He then seizes one of Ida’s horses and flees. Carl pursues him, despite Anna’s pleas to let him be, and eventually catches up to Lucas, stabbing him to death and muttering that everyone will believe he simply fell from the horse. Some time later, Ida discovers Lucas’s skeleton and, in a tearful farewell, tells him that he will soon be part of nature.
