In an alternate puppet world, all marionettes are connected to a higher power by their strings. When one is severed, they lose use of that limb, and, if their head-string is cut, they die. After a guilty king (Julian Glover) commits suicide, his scheming brother (Derek Jacobi) depicts it as a murder by a rebel tribe. Prince Hal (James McAvoy), the heir to the throne, is sent in disguise on a revenge mission, during which he learns of his uncle's plotting and the dark secrets of his own people.