In the wake of the catastrophic battle waged by Duke William of Normandy against the English, led by their king, Harold Godwinesson, in 1066, the countess Gytha, having lost three sons in that invasion, shepherds what remains of her family, the women and children, across the width of England, pursued by the conqueror and his marauding troops. Finally she sails with them to Flanders where she undertakes the building of a new home for her daughter and granddaughter. Once settled there she attempts to keep alive the memory of her son Harold, the last of the Anglo-Saxon warrior kings, by sponsoring an account of his life.