In the fictional country of Cimmeria, a sword is forged by a blacksmith (William Smith), who shows it to his young son Conan as he tells him "the Riddle of Steel", which is an aphorism of the importance of metal to their people. One day, the Cimmerians are massacred by the warriors of the sorcerer Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones), who is the leader of a snake cult. Dogs kill Conan's father and his mother is killed when Doom decapitates her with his sword. The children, Conan among them, are taken into slavery and chained to a mill called The Wheel of Pain. Conan grows into a young man (Arnold Schwarzenegger), whose muscles have built from years of pushing the heavy grindstone. His master eventually trains him into a gladiator; he is eventually freed after winning several pit fights and receiving training in the East. Conan travels to a warrior's tomb and retrieves a sword. He later on encounters a prophetic witch (Cassandra Gava) and befriends the thief Subotai (Gerry Lopez).