 The year is 1618. David, a young hunter, is on his way to see Dean Sölln in Berchtesgadener Land. He hopes to find work there and a new home. During the journey he bears witness to the burning of a witch. Shaken and upset by this terrible experience he goes to the post station where he encounters a young girl - Maddalena. Past and present become one. He has a vision in which he sees Maddalena being burnt at the stake. He tries to rescue her, drags her to the ground. Maddalena cries for help. David, as if awoken from a dream, runs off. Dean Sölln would like to get David a job with Sterzinger, the master huntsman, but David cannot work there. Maddalena is Sterzinger s daughter. Köppel, the boss of the mine, takes David on - David reminds him of his dead son. Isabel, the executioner s beautiful daughter, falls in love with David. She tries to put David under her spell, but David only has eyes for Maddalena. He hopes that one day she will understand the way he behaved. Commissar Pürckmeyer and Herr von Preysing have now arrived at Dean Sölln s in Stift. They are there to find out why the mine s takings, which Dean Sölln is in charge of, have gone down and whether this might be connected with the fact that more and more people are renouncing their faith and turning to Protestantism. David wants to help Dean Sölln. He starts experimenting with gunpowder and finds out how to put it to profitable use in salt mining. He wants to carry out an experiment which at the same time will serve as a test for his promotion. For this purpose he has himself locked into one of the mine s tunnels, while his fellow miners all watch suspiciously. He promises that in a very short time he will dig out more salt than any other man can in a week. He is severely injured by the tremendous explosion. But he has not only released enormous amounts of salt, but also the preserved primeval man. This spectacle frightens the others to death. David is accused of being in league with the devil. He is thrown into the dungeon. Dr. Pürckmeyer, the religious commissary, is now convinced that the devil is at large in the town. Dean Sölln does not succeed in pacifying the people s fear of witches. Although David manages to prove his innocence, the first victim is Köppel s sister, Katheline. In the meantime an absurd discussion arises about what is to be done with the primeval man. Rome is to decide whether he is to receive a christian or a heathen burial. David is considered to be the cause of all this misfortune. There are his fellow miners who fear for their jobs at the mine, there is Maddalena who would much rather consent to marry the town clerk and there are all those who really have been gripped by fear of the devil. The only one to stand by David is Isabel, the executioner s daughter. Once again the hunter puts his knowledge of explosives to use and rescues Isabel from the prison tower, where she had been taken after Pürckmeyer s witch-hunt. Together they flee the country to find a better future somewhere else.