Once upon a time, a King had eleven sons and one daughter. When his wife, the Queen, died, the King remarried. The new wife and the children's stepmother looks beautiful on the outside, but actually she's an evil witch. She sends the young princess Eliise to live in the village as an ordinary peasant girl and turns all the princes into wild swans. The princes are stuck being swans all day long and only at night can they regain their true form. When Eliise is 15 years old, she learns about the fate of her brothers and now she must overcome the obstacles put in her way by her stepmother in order to release her brothers from the spell.
This inventive, tongue-in-cheek comedy-drama not only reveals the charms of the Estonian countryside, but something of director (Kaljo Kiisk)'s sense of amusement as well. The hero of the title, Toomas Nipernaadi (Tõnu Kark) is first seen roaming the rural landscape, going from village to village looking for the woman of his dreams. He wears a bedraggled white suit but generously pays for any lodging he needs or in one case, even buys a farm. Nipernaadi has a way with words and enchants those he meets with his wild stories about himself. Women find him appealing and the men are entertained as he moves from one locale to the next.
Don Juan arrives in Tallinn and soon the gossip spreads like wildfire. The local women trip over themselves to be seduced by him; the men race to defend their honor by challenging him to a duel. What no one knows is that Don Juan is a woman in disguise.
