Composer Wolfgang Rihm writes an artist opera, Friedrich Nietzsche's late hymns to Dionysus, the wild god of the Greeks, serving as inspiration and starting point for his new music theatre. Nietzsche's intoxicating poetry and the ancient myths are condensed into one material for Rihm: "The entire Dionysus Dithyrambs serve as the text, which I read like a kind of theatre work. The text is mine, every word is Nietzsche's." The film documents the process of creating the opera and follows Nietzsche's footsteps in the mountains of Engadin, the poet's adopted home.