In the winter of 1838 surprise guests arrive at the manor house of Rautakylä, inhabited by the elderly Baron Magnus Drakenhjelm and the story takes us back fifty years to the court of Gustav III in Stockholm.
Rautakylän vanha parooni (1923) is the first directorial work of Karl (Carl) Fager, known as a stage director. Based on texts by Zacharias Topelius, the film is set in the manor house of Rautakylä, inhabited by the elderly Baron Magnus Drakenhjelm, on the shores of Lake Näsijärvi in the winter of 1838. Surprise guests arrive at the manor house and the story takes us back fifty years to the court of Gustav III in Stockholm.
The year is 1838 in the Rautakylä Manor on the shores of Lake Näsijärvi. Old Baron Magnus Drakenhjelm has been living with Lisette Hallström for 40 years and they have a son, Sebastian. As the Baron's death approaches, Lisette wants to legalize their relationship for the sake of the inheritance and, together with Sebastian, pressures the Baron to write to the priest to come and marry them as soon as possible. Sebastian immediately sets off to deliver the letter.
That same evening, the house is visited by unexpected guests, Mrs. Ebba Hjelm and her granddaughter Lotten Ringius, who, on their way to visit Major von Dahlen, have lost their way on the ice of Lake Näsijärvi and, caught in the twilight and harassed by wolves, have been forced to seek refuge in the manor house. Blinded, Frau Hjelm does not recognize the place; Lisette, on the other hand, recognizes the lady immediately and wants to repel the guests, but on the Baron's orders they are shown hospitality and a bed in one of the bedrooms. Lisette, however, mixes sleeping pills with their tea, locks the door, and orders the farmhand to get the women's driver drunk.
Lotten overhears the conversation between the baron and Lisette and tells the old lady, who then identifies the place and the host. She tells Lotten about events 50 years ago, which are seen as a flashback: at the court of Gustav III, she, Ebba Reutercrona, has become acquainted with the Drakenhjelm brothers and secretly married Gustav, the heir to the Baron's title, with Lisette Hallström, her companion, as another witness. Gustav was involved in the Anjala League and executed in its aftermath. Ebba and her young child have sought refuge in the manor of Rautakylä, but Magnus has refused to recognize her as his brother's lawful wife and has driven her away, as the marriage certificate has disappeared and Lisette takes Magnus' side.
The old lady has also identified the room to which they are confined and asks Lotten to find the secret door: Lotten finds a device that opens the door and a secret compartment containing irrefutable proof of the marriage and the right of inheritance. Meanwhile, the ill old priest has been replaced by his young assistant, Richard von Dahlen, who turns out to be Lotten's favorite and refuses to perform the marriage ceremony. The Baron has a fit and is confined to bed. Lisette orders Sebastian to kill the guests, but in the face of Lotten and the evidence, Sebastian backs down, repents, and apologizes on his knees. Lotten lets Sebastian out through a secret door, where a lynch mob waits and stuns him with a log, mistaking him for the guests' driver.
Lotten hears Richard's voice through the door and, relieved, the women rush to him. Lotten presents Richard with the papers he has found: Lisette can only rage, powerless, and Sebastian, too, fights off his mother and pushes her away. Richard leads the old lady to the Baron, where, at his sickbed, the sins of the past are confessed and atoned for. The Baron dies with increasingly dim memories of the court of Gustavus III in his mind's eye.
