the film begins with ashitaka's village, far outside of the empire

villagers lived peacefully until An angry cursed boar god attacks their village

ashitaka is the protagonist. His purpose is to kill the boar god. He incurs the curse of the boar god. And the boar god was cursed by being shot by an iron ball. Ashitaka sets on the journey to find the source of the iron ball

on his way ashitaka finds cities, villages and meets interesting people

one of them is a monk. he is entertaining and fun, but also he is a government spy

ashitaka's journey takes him to this magical forest, where the forest god lives. ashitaka hopes that he will be cured. Though the forest god does save his life afterwards, he doesn`t cure the curse

in the forest ashitaka meets the wolves, including san — princess mononoke. san is a human who has been adopted by the wolves. ashitaka falls in love with san

the wolves live near iron town — the source of the bullet, the source of the curse

iron town is run by eboshi. surprise: eboshi is not evil! in fact, she is trying to do good by rescuing lepers and getting women out of sex slavery. nevertheless, she is destroying nature

in order to dig out the iron they need to cut down the forest. in order to cut the forest, they need to kill the gods

eboshi slays the god of the forest, bringing the dark night, and threatens to destroy the whole world. luckily, the head was returned to the body of the forest god

along with us eboshi learns that we can't do good only for our loved ones. she realises how our good can harm others. so she asks at the end: "can the people and the forest live in peace?"

the answer to eboshi's question is summarised in the final line, when san tells ashitaka: "i love you, ashitaka. bit i'll never forgive the human race"