Plot summary

1662. Paris starves while youthful Louis XIV debauches young women and wastes the treasury on war. The captain of his guard, D'Artagnan, protects him from conspirators. Louis casts his eye on penniless Christine, the sweetheart of Raoul, a soldier and only son of retired musketeer, Athos. To have Christine, Louis sends Raoul to harm's way on the front. To kill the leader of the conspirators, the king calls in ex-musketeer Aramis, now a priest, accompanied by the Falstaffian Porthos. The queen mother, in widow's weeds, grieves in her chapel, and in the Bastille rots a solitary prisoner, face locked in an iron mask. Perfidy, silence, loyalty, rage, and guilt are set to collide.—