Synopsis:

Late 16th century.  Inside the small cemetery of the Jewish village of “Lodonia” by the Russian-Polish border, two social outcasts are joined in matrimony under the moonlight sky.  FISHKE, a lame orphaned bath attendant, weds an older mysterious blind orphaned woman who has come to the village just days before.  The marriage, believe the people of "Lodonia," will exorcise the spell of pogroms that has been haunting the village and its Jewish community.
But the wedding night proves a disaster, as Fishke, a devoted scholar of Torah, learns the truth about his new wife, a renegade vagabond belonging to a group of Jewish beggars.  Now that the villagers have been satisfied she wastes no time and makes a run for it through the dark night, and Fishke, albeit being forced into the marriage, follows her into the woods believing her to be his destined lawful wife in the eyes of his God.
When he finally tracks her down, Fishke is exposed to a world he did not know exist.  The group of Jewish outcasts survives by the way of the sword, victimizing their own people in the same way the Polish and Russian soldiers do.  Fishke spared for his life by the Beggar's cruel leader and eager to keep his marital vow, joins them at first against his better judgment.  However, after a short while, appalled and aghast by their sinister actions he decides to run away and things get complicated as the leader's young and pretty mistress uses the opportunity and follows suite.
Fueled by anger the leader hunts and tracks Fishke down opting for a struggle for revenge and respect in which he finds his death in the hands of his young trainee.    Deprived of a leader the beggars now turn to Fishke who reluctantly gives in for the request and takes on the challenge. 
Inspired by the ideology of coexistence and the belief in earning one's rights by fulfilling one's duties, Fishke sets out to liberate his people through war and to try and earn his vagabond and torn nation its own piece of land...