After star composer Richard Wagner's fatal cardiac arrest in Venice, his Hungarian-Italian-turned-French widow Cosima has a testament faked so she can inherit the family franchise, notably the annual Bayreuth Festspiele festival, 'until son Siegfried is old enough'. She, both Wagner daughters and their husbands plot for fame and riches from this inheritance. Siegfried is forced to try living up to his inherited status, but lacks father's talent and drive to become a great composer and/or conductor, while his passion is awaken by a discrete gay lover, Dorian, a secret which becomes crucial in tragic blackmail as well as Ricahrd's disputable paternity of youngest daughter Eva.