1188 in the Wachau: Uta grows up in a hut in the shadow of Dürnstein Castle. She cannot accept the barriers of her position as a freewoman, nor the injustice that the cruel Count Kuenringer does to her childhood friend Karl. Then Uta conceives an outrageous plan: she claims that she was born a noblewoman. The deception succeeds, Uta enters the splendid world of nobility, meets Richard the Lionheart himself. But is there a price she must pay for her lie?