Royal Highness is one of Thomas Mann's most powerful stories of a decaying stratified society rejuvenated by modern forces.

For His Royal Highness Prince Klaus Heinrich the modus Vivendi means servitude to ducal functions, which he graces with unthinking obedience..till he meets the rich, exotic and liberal-minded Miss Spoelmann, who possesses her fair share of spirit and a far wider experience of the world. During the course of his unorthodox and quixotically tender wooing, Klaus Heinrich, forced to reach into unknown depths of his personality, comes to find a truer existence and the real meaning of the word 'duty'.