Ioannina, early 19th century.

The eldest son of Ali Pasha, Mouhtar, and the beautiful Frosyni, a widow from a noble family and the niece of the lord of Larissa, have a secret love affair.

This comes to the attention of Mouhtar's wife, Hanife, who is the daughter of the powerful vizier of Skodra. Blinded by jealousy, she asks her father-in-law to punish the Christian adulteress.

Ali sends his son with an army to suppress the rebellion in Adrianople and invites Frosyni to the palace, where he persistently asks her to become his lover, but she refuses.

He then condemns her to death, and to cover up the true reason, he arrests seventeen other adulteresses, whom he drowns together in the lake of Ioannina.