Still mourning his father's death, Hamlet (David Tennant), crown prince of Denmark, is dismayed when his uncle Claudius (Patrick Stewart) marries his mother and assumes the throne in one of Shakespeare's best-known tragedies. The troubled prince is even more shocked when he's visited by his late father's ghost, who reveals that his death was no accident and demands that Hamlet seek revenge upon the killer: Claudius. The news pushes him over the edge into madness (or does it?) as Hamlet crafts a plan to expose his uncle's betrayal, a plan that will have tragic and unexpected results.