In this rural revenge drama, Güney plays Seyit Han, a poor man in love with a woman from his Anatolian village who returns his affection. Seyit Han postpones their marriage so that he can make his fortune elsewhere and return to the village to claim his "bride of the earth." During his prolonged absence, a rich landowner begins to woo the lonely woman, and her brother, intent upon making this propitious wedding happen, spreads the rumor that Seyit Han has died. Filled with striking images of entrapment — a man stuck in quicksand, a woman in a wicker cage — and landscapes of daisy-covered plains, Bride of the Earth powerfully explores the feudalistic ways of rural Turkey, the superstitions and codes of honor that entrap women and thwart love.