The tribulations of a hardy shepherd and a young boy fighting local peasants in order to have the right to graze his sheep. The old man is killed by some enraged peasants but the young boy carries on his work and battle. In this film, the livelihood of a nomadic shepherd depends on his being able to move his flocks freely from one grazing area to another. He is accompanied by a young boy, perhaps his apprentice. Laws throughout the region have freed the local peasant farmers to resist his movement though their lands, and he encounters harassments of all kinds. Indeed, so opposed are the local farmers to his passage that the shepherd is killed in one conflict. All along, the young boy has been learning how to care for the sheep, and how to deal with the peasantry. As the film ends, it looks as though he will continue to journey with the flock.