The story opens at a moment near the end of the 11th century when England is divided into a ruling Norman aristocracy and an oppressed, native Saxon population. The absence of the rightful Norman king, Richard, amplifies the political upheaval: in Richard’s absence, his brother Prince John plots to seize the throne permanently, aided by unscrupulous and abusive Norman noblemen and advisors. In these troubled times, Wamba and Gurth are trying to collect the swine which belong to their master, Cedric the Saxon, when they hear approaching riders. Prior Aymer and Templar knight Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert ask for directions to Cedric’s home, where they expect to receive hospitality on their way to an upcoming tournament. Knowing that their Saxon master doesn’t like Norman nobles, Wamba misdirects them. But when they get lost, a mysterious Palmer shows them the way. Soon after they arrive, another traveler—a Jewish moneylender named Isaac—joins them. When the Palmer overhears Sir Brian’s plan to kidnap Isaac, he helps Isaac escape, in gratitude for which Isaac loans him enough money to get a horse and armor so that he can enter the tournament.
Soon, people from all around, including Isaac and his daughter Rebecca and Cedric, his ward Rowena, and his ally Athelstane of Coningsburgh, descend on the tournament grounds. Everyone watches in awe as the Palmer, now calling himself the Disinherited Knight, singlehandedly defeats all five challengers (including Sir Brian) on the first day. He names Rowena the tournament’s Queen of Love and Beauty. He carries the field the second day as well, besting Sir Brian again with a little help from a mysterious Black Knight. When Prince John declares him the winner, the Disinherited Knight collapses from his injuries. Removing his helmet, the onlookers discover that he is none other than Ivanhoe, the son whom Cedric disinherited for falling in love with Rowena and for joining the court of the Norman King Richard. Made fearful by this evidence that Richard and his supporters are now in England, Prince John ends the tournament early and makes plans with his advisors, Maurice de Bracy and Waldemar Fitzurse, to complete their coup. Rebecca, a skilled physician, takes the wounded Ivanhoe into her care.
On the day following the tournament, Cedric, Rowena, Athelstane, and their party overtake Isaac, Rebecca, and Ivanhoe on the road. Soon after Cedric allows Isaac and Rebecca to join their traveling party, masked robbers ambush the group. Maurice de Bracy, having fallen in love with Rowena, plans to trick her into marrying him by kidnapping her in disguise, then pretending to rescue her. He and his friends carry most of the group to the Torquilstone, Ivanhoe’s rightful castle, which Prince John has given to Reginald Front-de-Boeuf, but Wamba and Gurth escape.
Inside Torquilstone, each member of the party faces peril in the castle. Athelstane worries he won’t get a good breakfast. De Bracy tries to woo Rowena. Sir Brian falls hopelessly in love with Rebecca and tries to convince her to become his mistress, but she steadfastly refuses. Front-de-Boeuf threatens to torture Isaac into relinquishing his treasure. Meanwhile, Wamba and Gurth join forces with woodsman Locksley, his friend the Cleric of Copmanhurst, and the Black Knight. They raise a motley but fierce army of angry Saxon peasants and skilled archers and, after a mighty battle, overrun the castle and rescue the captives.
As Torquilstone falls, Sir Brian puts Rebecca on a horse and rides with her to the Templar Preceptory at Templestowe, evidently killing Athelstane in the process; the Black Knight rescues Ivanhoe; the invading forces take De Bracy prisoner; and the Cleric of Copmanhurst releases Isaac from the dungeon. The next day, gathered under a large oak tree, Locksley and his men divide up the riches they managed to steal from the castle. Then the party disbands: the Black Knight reveals himself as King Richard to de Bracy, sending the knight with a warning to Prince John. Then he leaves on his own to finish rounding up an army. Cedric and Rowena depart to plan Athelstane’s funeral.
When Isaac realizes that Sir Brian has kidnapped Rebecca, he throws all his effort into ransoming and rescuing her. He rides at breakneck speed to Templestowe where, much to his dismay, the notoriously antisemitic Grand Master, Lucas de Beaumanoir, intercepts the letter he bears from Prior Aymer encouraging Sir Brian to release Rebecca unharmed. Furious to learn that one of his knights has been consorting not just with a woman, but with a Jewish doctor—by implication, in his opinion, a witch—Beaumanoir declares his intention to try Rebecca as a witch and burn her at the stake when he finds her guilty.
Rebecca refuses to answer the trumped-up charges and coerced testimony of the witnesses at her trial, but at Sir Brian’s urging, she does demand the right to judicial combat. Sir Brian had planned to fight on her behalf (in disguise, of course), but the other Templars demand that he stand as the champion for their side of the fight. Desperate, Rebecca sends a message begging Ivanhoe to help her. He has three days to appear. During this time, Sir Brian’s conflicting feelings—his worldly ambition on the one hand and his hopeless love for Rebecca on the other—drive him nearly to distraction. He repeatedly begs Rebecca to run away with him to Palestine, but she refuses to accept or return his disorderly and violent love.
Meanwhile, Wamba and King Richard set off through the woods for Athelstane’s funeral, temporarily distracted when Fitzurse attacks them in an assassination attempt. Soon, Gurth and Ivanhoe, recovering quickly from his wounds thanks to Rebecca’s skill, catch up to them. Ivanhoe and Richard, still disguised, ride to Coningsburgh to pay their respects. After Richard reveals himself and reconciles Cedric with Ivanhoe, Athelstane returns as if from the dead. Sir Brian only knocked him unconscious, and a bunch of greedy monks have been faking his death to earn a large donation for performing his funeral rites. Athelstane relinquishes his claim on Rowena’s love and the English throne and retires to rule happily over his own lands. While he tells his story to Cedric, Isaac appears and speaks briefly to Ivanhoe, who immediately leaves, followed by King Richard.
On the appointed day, at the final hour, Ivanhoe thunders up to the Preceptory of Templestowe to fight as Rebecca’s champion. No one expects the exhausted, pale knight or his spent, sweaty horse to win, but at the mere touch of Ivanhoe’s lance, Sir Brian falls from his horse, dead either by the hand of God or from the strain of his conflicted emotions. Soon everything else has been set to rights, too: Prince John surrenders to King Richard, who mercifully imprisons his brother rather than execute him, and Ivanhoe and Rowena marry. They will live happily together and Ivanhoe will achieve great renown during Richard’s lifetime. Two days after their wedding, Rebecca visits Rowena to offer her congratulations and gifts, and to explain that she’s leaving England forever.
