An unbelievable but true episode from the last century: spectacularly funny, frighteningly contemporary. Fiume on the Adriatic Sea. Until 1918, the port city belonged to the Habsburg Empire, but now Italian guerrillas are moving in, under the leadership of a famous man. Gabriele D'Annunzio, poet, war hero and ardent nationalist, proclaims the Republic. In Fiume, the craziest state in world history is now to be created, politics as a spectacle. Among D'Annunzio's supporters: a certain Mussolini. And Guido Baron Keller from Kellerer and Wolkenkeller. The daredevil aviator, nudist and utopian is obsessed with an idea from futuristic artistic circles: If you want to destroy the rotten world of yesterday and build a radiant, new one, you need the explosive power of madness. No sooner said than done. From the madhouses all over Italy, patients (as harmless as possible) are requested. They are to become ministers in the new state. And so the nurse Cherubino sets out to accompany a friendly axe murderer to the Adriatic Sea - towards the dawn of a new era, to the republic of madmen.