Adapted from a story by 'Out of Africa' author Isak Dinesen, it tells the story of a 19th Century religious community on Denmark's remote and windswept coast. Into this austere environment comes Babette, a mysterious refugee from France's civil war.

When she mounts a French gourmet feast to mark the community's anniversary, the local elders are scandalized. Just who is the strangely talented Babette, who has terrified this pious town with the prospect of losing their souls for enjoying too much earthly pleasure?