Spots 
Twelfth-century England remains fractured long after the Norman Conquest, with French-speaking rulers imposing feudal bondage upon Saxon natives. In the forests of Yorkshire, Gurth the swineherd and Wamba the fool tend their master's swine while enduring the degrading oppression of Norman law. Serfdom reduces native Britons to livestock status, marked by iron collars that symbolise their subjugation.
Prior Aymer of Jorvaulx and the Templar knight Brian de Bois-Guilbert embody the corruption and military arrogance of the ruling Norman caste. Journeying through the forest toward Rotherwood, they treat native Saxons with contempt while seeking hospitality. Wamba deliberately misdirects the arrogant travellers to protect his master's hall from Norman insolence.
Cedric the Saxon maintains an unyielding loyalty to native traditions within his timber hall at Rotherwood. Bitter over the Norman yoke and furious at his son Ivanhoe for adopting Norman knighthood and joining King Richard's Crusade, Cedric disowns his heir. His household reflects a fierce, declining culture clinging to ancestral pride.
Cedric begrudgingly offers shelter to Prior Aymer, Bois-Guilbert, and their retinue under ancient laws of hospitality. The entrance of Lady Rowena, Cedric's ward and a descendant of Saxon royalty, instantly sparks the Templar's lustful gaze. Tensions escalate as Norman pride clashes with Saxon resentment over food and wine.
Isaac of York, a Jewish moneylender seeking shelter from a storm, faces open hostility from both Norman guests and Saxon hosts. Only a disguised Palmer, newly returned from the Holy Land, offers Isaac a seat by the hearth. Intolerance unites Norman and Saxon in shared contempt for Jewish travelers, revealing deeper societal bigotry.
Overhearing Bois-Guilbert plot to capture Isaac upon departure, the disguised Palmer awakens the merchant early and guides him to safety. In gratitude for saving his life and liberty, Isaac offers the poor Palmer a note granting him horse and armor for the upcoming tournament at Ashby-de-la-Zouche.
Prince John uses the tournament at Ashby to flaunt power while his brother King Richard remains imprisoned abroad. The Prince publicly insults both Saxon nobles and Isaac of York to assert Norman supremacy and win populist favor. Tournament stands become the arena where social hierarchies are enforced and challenged.
The Disinherited Knight enters the arena clad in unblazoned armor and directly challenges the formidable Brian de Bois-Guilbert. In single combat, the mysterious unknown jouster unseats the Templar and defeats all Norman champions. Anonymous courage overcomes elite arrogance before a stunned crowd.
Victorious in combat, the Disinherited Knight selects Lady Rowena as the Queen of Love and Beauty, humiliating Prince John's Norman courtiers. Rowena crowns the champion, signaling a symbolic victory for native Saxons over their oppressors. Chivalric protocol forces Prince John to accept the knight's choice.
Gurth acts as squire to the Disinherited Knight, collecting ransoms from vanquished Norman jousters while refusing Bois-Guilbert's horse. Gurth visits Isaac in Ashby to pay for the borrowed armor, but Isaac's daughter Rebecca secretly refunds the silver. Gurth's journey back is interrupted by forest outlaws.
Captured by forest bandits, Gurth proves his loyalty to his master and defends his purse. Challenged to single combat with quarterstaffs by a sturdy miller among the outlaws, Gurth wins his freedom through sheer toughness and skill. The outlaw band releases him unharmed with his money intact.
The second day's grand melee turns deadly as Norman jousters gang up on the Disinherited Knight. A sluggish giant in black armor, known as the Black Sluggard, suddenly intervenes to save him before riding away. The champion is revealed to be the wounded Wilfrid of Ivanhoe, who collapses at Rowena's feet.
Prince John receives a frantic warning letter announcing that his brother King Richard has escaped captivity in Austria. Panicking over his precarious rule, John hurries through the remaining archery contest, where Locksley the yeoman wins glory by splitting a willow wand at distance.
Prince John hosts a lavish banquet for Saxon and Norman nobility to secure political loyalty. When John taunts Saxon heritage, Cedric stands and boldly toasts King Richard Plantagenet as a worthy monarch, appalling the prince and his advisors. The Saxon party departs, drawing clear political battle lines.
Waldemar Fitzurse and Maurice de Bracy plot to solidify Norman dominance and seize Saxon estates. De Bracy forms a plan to ambush Cedric's party, kidnap Lady Rowena, and force her into marriage under the guise of an outlaw attack. Political greed drives noblemen to banditry.
The Black Knight wanders through Sherwood Forest and seeks shelter at the isolated hermitage of St. Dunstan. He gains entry from the Holy Clerk of Copmanhurst, a jovial hermit who initially hides his comfortable lifestyle behind pious excuses.
The Black Knight and Friar Tuck feast on venison pasty and share flagons of wine inside the cell. Stripping away religious pretense and aristocratic reserve, the two men sing ballads and drink together long into the night, united by appetite and camaraderie.
Cedric and Athelstane depart Ashby with their entourage while Isaac and Rebecca travel separately with a litter carrying the badly wounded Ivanhoe. Fearing outlaw attacks, Isaac begs Cedric to let their groups join forces for mutual protection through the dangerous forest.
De Bracy and Bois-Guilbert, dressed as outlaws, attack the combined party and capture Cedric, Rowena, Athelstane, Isaac, Rebecca, and Ivanhoe. Gurth escapes into the woods, where he meets Wamba and Locksley, who resolves to gather his yeomen to rescue the prisoners.
Locksley leads Wamba and Gurth to the Great Oak, rallying his outlaw band to assault Torquilstone Castle. The Black Knight and Friar Tuck join the yeomen, combining royal martial prowess with peasant woodcraft to launch a siege against Front-de-Boeuf's stronghold.
The captives are imprisoned in Torquilstone Castle, where Reginald Front-de-Boeuf demands a massive ransom from Isaac. Front-de-Boeuf brings Isaac down to the dungeon furnace, threatening to roast him alive on an iron grate unless he pays one thousand pounds of silver.
Bound over glowing coals in the dungeon, Isaac agrees to pay Front-de-Boeuf's exorbitant ransom. However, upon learning that Rebecca has been given to Bois-Guilbert, Isaac refuses to pay a single coin, demanding his daughter's freedom before any gold is transferred.
Maurice de Bracy corners Lady Rowena in her chamber, threatening to execute Ivanhoe unless she consents to marry him. Rowena's tears turn to proud defiance as she refuses to sacrifice her dignity or betray her love for Ivanhoe.
Brian de Bois-Guilbert attempts to force himself on Rebecca in a high tower turret. Rebecca steps onto the outer parapet, threatening to throw herself to her death on the stones below rather than surrender her honor to the Templar, forcing him to stand down.
Sir Walter Scott portrays twelfth-century England torn by Norman oppression, Saxon resentment, knightly chivalry, and religious bigotry.