 The hero, Gösta Berling, is a defrocked Lutheran priest who has been saved by the Mistress of Ekeby from freezing to death and thereupon becomes one of her pensioners in the manor at Ekeby.As the pensioners finally get power in their own hands, they manage the property as they themselves see fit and their lives are filled with many wild adventures.Gösta Berling is their leading spirit, the poet, the charming personality among a band of revelers.