An elaborate Hollywood retelling of the Bible stories narrated by the film's director John Huston. We open with the Creation of the World and arrive at the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve (Michael Parks and Ulla Bergryd) and continue on to Cain (Richard Harris) and the murder of Abel (Franco Nero). Next, we visit Noah (John Huston) and his ark with its spectacular flood sequence. Then we come to the story of Nimrod, King of Babel (Stephen Boyd), the emergence of man's vanity and the heights to which it could aspire if unchecked. Finally we cover Abraham (George C. Scott), a mystic who spoke personally with God, a leader of men, a builder of nations, a pioneer and a warrior and Sarah (Ava Gardner). At the time she conceived her first child, the event being forecast by an Angel of the Lord. Three such Heavenly Messengers (all portrayed by Peter O'Toole) appeared in the course of events which befell Abraham and Sarah.

Thymiane is a beautiful young girl who is not having a storybook life. Her governess, Elizabeth, is thrown out of her home when she is pregnant, only to be later found drown. That same day, her father already has a new governess named Meta. Meinert, downstairs druggist, takes advance of her and gets Thymiane pregnant. When she refuses to marry, her baby is taken from her and she is put into a strict girls reform school. When Count Osdorff is unable to get the family to take her back, he waits for her to escape. She escapes with a friend and the friend goes with the Count while she goes to see her baby. Thymiane finds that her baby is dead, and the Count has put both girls up at a brothel. When her father dies, Thymiane marries the Count and becomes a Countess, but her past and her hatred of Meta will come back to her.

A hunter (Andrews) happens upon a fugitive (Brennan) and his daughter (Baxter) living in a Georgia swamp. He falls in love with the girl and pursuades the fugitive to return to town.