Director Rainer Kirberg made his feature-length debut with this offbeat drama, full of striking visuals that pay homage to vintage science fiction and the great silent films of the German expressionist period. The Worldly (Erwin Leder) is a gaunt, obsessive man who has been commanded by the Ruler (Gerhard Kittler) to find a worthy heir to his empire after learning his son (Paul Adler) is enjoying an incestuous affair with his sister (Anke Gieseke). After the Ruler declares his disappointment to the world with a monument to failure modeled after his disgraced son, the Worldly finds three likely candidates to replace the Ruler, but in time the Strong (Georg Ensermann), the Beautiful (Armin Sorg) and the Wise (Richard Pleuger) kill one another rather than cooperate. A mysterious Inspector begins following the Worldly as he investigates other successors, but when the Worldly comes to the conclusion that he would be a better leader than anyone he's discovered, he learns the Inspector is actually the Ruler in disguise, and the Worldly feels he's been duped. Abandoning his loyalties to the Ruler, the Worldly joins forces with the Scientist (Volker Niederfahrenhorst) to topple the society he once served.