Butangen, Norway, the years before WWII: Astrid Hekne has inherited the fighting spirit and hypersensitivity of her grandmother, who was a protector of the mythic Sister Bells that had once hung in the village's centuries-old stave church.

The priest Kai Schweigaard, now in his eighties, is wondering how his death, prophesied in a centuries-old tapestry, will come to pass. He delves into the myths about the Night of the Scourge, which, according to old village beliefs, is when the known world will be scraped down to bare rock.

Then Norway is occupied by the Nazis. Astrid joins the Resistance, and Kai is thrown out of his own church. A suspected betrayal within Astrid's own family unites the Sister Bells in Dresden. Special effort and sacrifice, not only from the Hekne family, will be needed to combat the postwar rumours and mistrust.