This the story of a wizard elk - Rauten, as people called him. He was a human being in animal guise. The story begins in Ré Valley, which lies like a yawning gap between mountains, long and flat with borders of forests so dark that they look as though part of the blackness of night lingered in them. A river moves sluggishly along the bottom of the valley, making its way slowly and carefully between stretches of light-red sand. It runs northwards, a rare thing in Norway.

Den store barnedåpen (English: The great christening) is a 1931 Norwegian comedy film directed by Tancred Ibsen, starring Einar Sissener, Aase Bye and Agnete Schibsted-Hansson. It was the first feature-length Norwegian sound film. The lacklustre Harald (Sissener) is taken in by Alvilde (Bye), and charged with looking after her bastard child. It soon dawns on both of them that Harald has more potential than previously assumed.

The stuttering Theobald stumbles upon some ballet girls who are in town with a touring theater company and falls in love with Lill. This leads to an interest in becoming an actor, and a theater manager sees him as an unintentional comic relief on stage.

Tore, son of a poor farmer, loves Berit, daughter of a rich one, but she's promised to another man whom she does not love and thus refuses to marry.