It is Christmas at Camelot and a youthful, bored King Arthur wants to learn of a magical adventure to liven up the festivities. Little does he know what he is asking for... Through the hall door comes a monstrous figure. Green from top to toe, riding a green horse and bearing a holly bough and a huge axe, the mysterious visitor lays down a challenge that anyone can cut off his head, provided that in a year's time he can repeat the favour! When Gawain takes up the challenge to save the honour of his king, he slices off the visitor's head only for the Green Knight to walk over to it, pick it up, and then tell Gawain to search for him at a mysterious place called the Green Chapel. The story follows Gawain on his travels through the snowy wastes and brutal landscape of North Wales, onto the godless "wilderness of Wirral" before venturing into the lonely and threatening rocky landscape of the Staffordshire Roaches and the southern Peak District. Alone and in despair, he finally arrives at the mysterious castle of Hautdesert where he is entertained by its lord, Bertilak, and two women - his young and attractive wife and a mysterious older woman. Bertilak strikes a bargain with Gawain that he can stay at Hautdesert for three days; whatever Gawain wins in the castle, Bertilak will exchange for whatever he wins out hunting. On each of the three days, Bertilak takes a deer, a boar and a fox; in beautiful symmetry, Gawain wins one, then two, then three kisses from Bertilak's wife who is attempting to seduce him. In the final seduction scene, the lady offers Gawain a green girdle to protect him from any danger but Gawain does not disclose this as a "winning" to Bertilak. In the final section of the poem, when Gawain reaches the Green Chapel, he is humiliated by the Green Knight for his failings at the castle. The reasons become clear as to how and why Gawain is shamed, and the role played by both the lady and older woman in his downfall.