The year is 1193. Sir Wilfred Ivanhoe, a Saxon, has joined his Norman King Richard on the Third Crusade to free the Holy Land. Ivanhoe has found favor with his monarch on the battlefield and believes that Richard can end the years of bitter conflict between Saxon and Norman that has divided England since the Norman invasion in 1066. As the Third Crusade comes to an end and Richard begins the journey back to England he is captured and held for a great ransom.

Ivanhoe returns home to find the corrupt Prince John on his brother's throne. Meanwhile, Ivanhoe's true love Lady Rowena, a Saxon princess, has been pleaded in marriage to another and Ivanhoe has been banished from his ancestral home and disinherited by his father because of his friendship and loyalty to the Norman king.

To ransom his king, Ivanhoe must turn to the Jewish merchants and bankers to raise the treasure necessary to free the king. When this is accomplished, Richard returns to England to reclaim his throne and fete his good and loyal friend Ivanhoe with a great tournament attended by the heads of state of Europe. Ivanhoe and Lady Rowena are reunited and it is here our story begins.