Strange adventures occurred with a young scientist named Christian Theodore, who came to a small southern country to study history. He settled in a hotel, in the room where the storyteller Hans Christian Andersen lived before him. (Maybe this is the whole point?) The master daughter of the Annunziate tells him about the extraordinary will of the last local king. In it, he ordered his daughter Louise not to marry the prince, but to find a good honest husband among the noble people. The will is considered a great secret, but the whole city knows about it. The princess, in order to fulfill her father’s will, disappears from the palace. Many try to find her refuge in the hope of gaining a royal throne.
Listening to the story, Christian Theodore is always distracted, because he is looking at the balcony of the neighboring house, where a lovely girl appears every now and then. In the end, he decides to speak with her, and then even confesses his love and seems to find a reciprocal feeling.
When the girl leaves the balcony, Christian-Theodore realizes that the princess was his interlocutor. He wants to continue the conversation, and half-jokingly turns to his shadow lying at his feet, inviting her to go instead of him to a stranger and say about his love. Suddenly, the shadow separates and dives into the loosely pretended door of the neighboring balcony. The scientist is getting sick. The run-in Annunziata notices that the guest has no more shadow, and this is a bad sign. She runs after the doctor. Her father Pietro advises not to tell anyone what happened.
But in the city everyone knows how to eavesdrop. So the journalist Caesar Borgia, who entered the room, discovers full awareness of the conversation between Christian Theodore and the girl. Both he and Pietro are sure that this is a princess, and do not want her to marry a newcomer. According to Pietro, one needs to find a runaway shadow, which, being the exact opposite of its master, will help prevent the wedding. The Annunziata is full of anxiety for the future of the young man, because secretly already loves him.
A meeting of two ministers is taking place in the city park. They gossip about the Princess and the Scientist. They decide that he is not a blackmailer, not a thief and not a sly one, but a simple naive person. But the actions of such people are unpredictable, so you have to either buy him or kill him. A stranger suddenly appears next to them (this is the Shadow) ...
[pass]
Everyone sees that the Shadow hardly gets up, staggers and falls. Recalling himself, the first minister orders the lackeys to take the king away and calls the executioner to execute the Scientist. Christians are being taken away.
Annunziata begs Julia to do something to save him. She manages to arouse good feelings in the singer. Julia asks the Doctor to give her miraculous water, but the Doctor says that it’s impossible for the Minister of Finance to get water under the seven locks. As soon as the Shadow and Louise returned to the throne room, from afar came the beat of the drums: the execution was completed. And suddenly the head of the Shadow flies off his shoulders. The first minister understands that an error occurred: they did not take into account that, having cut off the head of the Scientist, they would deprive his head and his shadow. To save the Shadow, you have to resurrect the Scientist. Hastily sent for living water. The Shadow's head is back in place, but now the Shadow is trying to please its former owner in everything, because it wants to live. Louise indignantly drives away the former groom. A shadow slowly descends from the throne and, wrapped in a mantle, presses itself against the wall. The princess orders the chief of the guard: “Take him!” The Guard grabs the Shadow, but they still have an empty mantle in their hands - the Shadow disappears. “He hid to stand on my road again and again. But I recognize him, I recognize him everywhere, ”says Christian Theodore. The princess begs forgiveness, but Christians no longer love her. He takes the hand of the Annunziate, and they leave the palace.
