The film, based on William Shakespeare's play, paints an authentic picture of the dark and intriguing French-English confrontation in medieval Europe. The powerful but old King Lear is slowly abdicating the throne, but in the meantime, he does not even know that his two eldest daughters, Goneril and Regan, also want him dead and in power. At the age of eighty, Lear decides to divide his kingdom equally among his three daughters, but first asks them how much they love him.