Steen Steensen Blicher

Blicher's novel about the rich housekeeper's daughter, who must not get the poor Esben, whom she loves. Since Esben has finally earned her parents' acceptance, the unhappy girl has become insane and kills him.

The God-fearing vicar Niels Quist lives with his beloved daughter Mette in the small Jutland town of Vejlby. The newly elected county bailiff and local magistrate, Erik Sørensen, is the lucky fellow who wins Mette’s heart, but their happiness is short-lived: One day, the vicar’s farmhand mysteriously disappears, and all signs suggest that the vicar is the killer. But is Erik Sørensen willing and able to sentence his own true love’s father to death?

The parish priest in Vejlby is being sentenced and executed for the murder of his farmer, Niels Bruus. The chief of the army must acknowledge the evidence and judge him, even though he had actually been married to the daughter of the parish priest Mette.