The story takes place in a conservative Danish city, where the widower Morten Borgen antagonises the entire city because of his heretic doubts. Even his children, Anders and Mikkel, don't believe in God. The third son, Johannes, believes, instead, to be Jesus Christ. Ordet is about the conflict between the inner faith and the organized religion movements. Based on a play by Kaj Munk, a Danish Lutheran priest who was killed by the nazis because he declared his faith to God instead to Hitler.