A retired soldier, Martin, is returning home after twelve years of service. On the way, he stops in a small Wallachian village, which is ruled by a stingy and ruthless fojt with the help of a sycophantic scoundrel and the local priest. Martin witnesses how he takes the only cow from the widower Kryštof and his five children for a few pennies, how he denies payment of the debt to Jura and Juříček, who then force them to work in his forest for free, how he denies his share of the inheritance to his brother Štěpán, who is in love with the charming Anička. Martin does not want to let all this go by so he decides to help the villagers and punish the fojt. Soon, strange things start happening in the village and the fojt is increasingly afraid that the devil is behind everything. In his place, Martin appears with a cunning plan, the main part of which is a recipe for axe soup.