A classic tragedy by Henrik ibsen which concerns the architect Halvard Solness, a man of great energy and iron will whose virility is now waning with age. A young woman, Hilda Wangel, appears one day to announce (with overt sexual symbolism) that she has worshipped him since the day, many years earlier, that she watched him climb to the top of a great tower he had built. Solness is both excited and troubled by her admiration. He has just built a house with a tower for himself and his wife, and Hilda insists that he climb to the top and crown it with a laurel wreath. Solness, overcome by her faith in him, struggles to the top before falling to his death.