After the murder of his wife and the suicide of his son, the increasingly aging Emperor Franz-Josef of Austria-Hungary has become more and more distanced from his people and his empire. Although he does not really like his new heir apparent, his nephew, the Archduke Franz-Ferdinand, for whom Franz-Josef never has been able to forgive a most unsuitable morganatic marriage, he realises that monarchy must survive. In 1914, Franz-Josef arranges so that Franz-Ferdinand and his wife are to go on official business in Sarajevo.
