Documentary on the Stuttgart Ballet and artistic director John Cranko during his first nine years with the company (1960-1969). Company members are shown in rehearsal, class, onstage in performance and informally offstage. Cranko is seen rehearsing Marcia Haydee in Giselle's variation, Act I, and excerpts from his productions of Swan lake and The nutcracker (including Haydee and Richard Cragun in the Black swan pas de deux). Also includes a long excerpt from Jeu de cartes with Egon Madsen and Marianne Kruuse, Opus 1 (complete) with Richard Cragun and Birgit Keil, rehearsal excerpts from Onegin, and the final pas de deux from The taming of the shrew with Haydee and Cragun.