The protagonist, Walter Thirsk, never quite accepted by the community of an unnamed Scottish village, tells the story from his perspective. The story begins with the arrival of some strangers to the bounds of the village. After a brief altercation with the three newcomers, the two men are chained to a pillory for a week. The woman travelling with them has her hair shaven off. Meanwhile, another newcomer has recently been spotted taking careful notes and making drawings of the land. It is his presence more than any other that will threaten the village's entire way of life.
"With this film we had the chance to examine the moment when it all began for us – twentyfirst-century heirs to a universal story of land loss. To me, Harvest is a film about reckoning. What have we done? Where do we go from here? How can we salvage our soil, the self within the commons? An agrarian community is disrupted by three breeds of outsiders: the map-maker, the people on the move, and the company man – all archetypes of shattering change. The future is not part of the story – it will happen offscreen, in a world we are not meant to see." (Athina Rachel Tsangari)