In this adaptation of the Thomas Mann novel, avant-garde composer
Gustave
Aschenbach (loosely based on Gustav Mahler) travels to a Venetian seaside
resort in search of repose after a period of artistic and personal stress. But
he
finds no peace there, for he soon develops a troubling attraction to an
adolescent boy, Tadzio, on vacation with his family. The boy embodies an
ideal of beauty that Aschenbach has long sought and he becomes
infatuated.
However, the onset of a deadly pestilence threatens them both physically
and represents the corruption that compromises and threatens all ideals.