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Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, the son of Emperor Franz Josef of Austria, is thought to have shot his female lover and himself in a tragic suicide pact in Mayerling in 1882. The full story may never be known because of Imperial cover-ups. This story has been adapted for film several times, first in French in 1935 and then in English in 1968. Miklos Jancso, a Hungarian director, recreates those events for his own purposes, continuing his favorite theme of paternal authority rejection. Rudolf is a good-natured pansexual golden boy who cavorts on his rural estate with a slew of beautiful, aristocratic lovers and friends of both sexes in the film, which has very little dialogue. He refuses to leave his idyllic country despite the Emperor's, his father's, orders. Despite the fact that attractive young people are seen walking around naked and engaging in erotic encounters for the majority of the film, the mood is one of melancholy rather than prurience.