After 20 years away, Odysseus (Ralph Fiennes) washes up on the shores of Ithaca, where he discovers that much has changed in his kingdom since he left to fight in the Trojan War. His beloved wife Penelope (Juliette Binoche) is now a prisoner in her own home, hounded by her many ambitious suitors to choose a new husband, a new king. Their son Telemachus, who has grown up fatherless, is facing death at the hands of the suitors who see him as an obstacle in their relentless pursuit of Penelope and the kingdom.