A European king tries to settles his family's problems while fighting off a peasant revolt.

More interested in playing checkers with the servants than in governing his people, King Eric VIII is dominated by Martha, his queen, a humorless woman who believes in doing her royal duty above all else. Her daughter, Princess Anne, however, loves commoner Freddie Granton, the king's secretary, and refuses to marry her mother's political choice, the foppish Prince William. After the queen leaves for a promotional tour of America, a long-fomenting revolution erupts on the night of Anne's birthday ball, and the palace is bombed. The king agrees to meet with the revolution's leader and, after hearing his cause, promises him that if the revolutionaries lay down their arms, he will oust General Northrup, the powerful, dictatorial premier. After some manipulation and collaboration, the king rids the country of Northrup, while insuring better living conditions for his subjects. With the uprising squelched and the queen back from America, Anne's wedding to William proceeds as planned, though under protest from the princess. Minutes before the ceremony, however, the rejuvenated king, in final defiance of his wife, secretly marries Anne and Freddie himself and arranges for their passage to common freedom.