Based on the best selling books of Jan Guillou – Arn, the son of a high-ranking Swedish nobleman is educated in a monastery until the age of 21 and is then sent to the Holy Land as a knight templar to do penance for a forbidden love while his lover is forced to take holy orders. On arriving in the Holy Land Arn unwittingly saves the life of Saladin (the leader of the Muslim army) and after many years of fighting the favour is returned and Arn is finally able to return to Sweden, a changed man who fears he has lost the love of his life.