Richard II, who ascended the throne as a child, is a regal and stately monarch. He believes he is the rightful ruler of England, ordained by God, yet he is a weak and ineffective king - wasteful in his spending habits, unwise in his choise of chansellors, and detached from his country and its people. When he seizes the land of his cousin Henry Bolingbroke, both the commoners and the barons decide that their king has gone too far...

Three philosophy professors travel to Prague for a conference. One of them, Anderson, is forced to rethink his ideas on ethics when a former student is arrested by the Czech authorities for writing about individualist approaches to morality.