In the late 18th century, the Turkish army lays siege to a European city where a theater production about the extraordinary heroics of famed German aristocrat Baron Münchhausen is underway. A man (John Neville) steps forward to object that the performance is full of inaccuracies, claiming that he is the real Baron Münchhausen. When the Turkish army approaches with gunfire, the baron undertakes his latest adventure with his promise to defend the city. Director Terry Gilliam based his outlandish film on the stories of Rudolf Erich Raspe, which defied the scientific certainties of the Age of Enlightenment.