On 20 June 1791 the king and queen of France (Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette) tried to escape from Revolutionary Paris to join monarchist allies outside France, but were arrested in the town of Varennes. The incident inflamed popular distrust and hatred against the monarchy. Linked to this historical event the film imagines a group of travellers on the same road, including the American patriot Thomas Paine, the noted seducer Casanova, the French novelist Restif de La Bretonne, and one of the queen's ladies-in-waiting. They reflect various attitudes toward the momentous changes taking place around them.