It is the year 1644, and in the great council hall of his majesty, King Christian IV of Denmark, where the author of a book, Theodore Ranking is on trial for his writings, which amounts to treason. He professes that the voice of the people will not be silenced and that democracy will prevail, and so the king sentences him to death, with a perverse twist. The only way he can escape the sentence, is to eat his own book...