Christmas 1877: The Empress Elisabeth of Austria (VICKY KRIEPS) celebrates her 40th birthday. In her representative role at the side of her husband Emperor Franz Joseph (FLORIAN TEICHTMEISTER), she is not allowed to voice an opinion, and instead must forever remain the young and beautiful empress. In order to live up to this expectation, she adheres to a rigorous regimen of fasting, exercising, hairdressing and daily measurements of her waist. But Elisabeth has a hunger for knowledge and zest for life, increasingly rebels against the hyperbolised image of herself, and is no longer willing to live life constrained by a courtly corset.