Corin Redgrave plays Lear, King of Britain, who decides to abdicate and split his kingdom between his three daughters based on how much they love him. Unscrupulous characters that two of them are, they magnify their love in the telling. Truthful Cordelia, not out for her own reward, tells the truth, but the foolish old Lear is won over by flattery, splits the land between Goneril and Regan, and gives Cordelia to the King of France. So begins one of Shakespeare’s most tragic tales.