In 1184, French village blacksmith Balian just lost his wife trough suicide grief-stricken by their child's death; the crusader lord Godfrey, baron of Ibelin, reveals himself as Balian's father and offers him a crusader life, which the youngster spontaneously rejects but after the local priest taunts him till his sword strikes fatally accepts, fleeing the French bishop's bloody justice and seeking divine forgiveness as promised to crusaders in Jerusalem. On the way, Balian is instructed the skills of war and chivalric honor code and dubbed a knight in Messina by his father, who was fatally wounded fighting off the bishop's men.