Louis XIV ruled France for 72 years, and this film covers the last weeks of it, starting with the gangrene that set into his leg in August 1715. Court doctors bleed and purge him while he keeps up the rituals of Versailles, receiving ambassadors and holding council even as the infection spreads. Historians and reenactments walk through the theatrical nature of a king's death in this period, staged in front of courtiers as a public event rather than a private one. His death on September 1, 1715 triggers immediate maneuvering: his will, meant to check the power of his nephew Philippe d'Orleans, is overturned within days. The film then follows the elaborate funeral procession and the weeks of mourning ritual that end on October 23 with burial at Saint-Denis, all of it doubling as the public announcement that Louis XIV's five-year-old great-grandson is now Louis XV. The result is a close account of how a 17th-century monarchy staged the handover of absolute power.