The Bells

Mathias, an innkeeper with several other businesses, seeks to be burgomaster of a small Austrian hamlet. In order to gain favor with local leaders, he offers food and alcohol on credit, but often refuses to collect, much to the dismay of his wife Catharine. Mathias is deeply in debt to Frantz, who will forgive the debt if Mathias allows him to marry his daughter, Annette. When the man leaves in a blizzard, Mathias pursues and kills him; before he dies, the man shakes horse bells at him.