Moments before taking his priestly vows, Prince Alfred of Wessex is summoned to a new calling: leading his Saxon people to drive out invading Danes in an England that in the 870s was a loose collection of kingdoms. After he ascends the throne and wages his own personal battle between following his peace-craving intellect or his all-too-human passion, he suffers defeat in the face of pagan savagery and the surrender of his wife as a hostage, before celebrating victory as the reluctant yet brilliant warrior hallowed across time as the unifying ruler Alfred the Great.