Sisi, the Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, arrives in Greece to build a summer palace on the island of Corfu. The palace is devoted to the demigod Achilles, who in her mind represents the pursuit of perfection through immortality. Her aesthetic tastes involve experiencing the beauty of the ancient world, but dreams of Achilles force her to come to terms with her mortality. Sisi realizes that building the summer palace has allowed Achilles to enter the modern world. Her fascination with Achilles causes her to fall in love with him, but the existence of the summer palace means that Achilles will once again have only a short time to live.