By using Lord Elgin's actual letters written when he was Ambassador in Constantinople in 1802 the film analyses how and why he took the majority of the sculptures from the Parthenon Temple in Athens and shipped them back to England.

Ever since that moment on the Acropolis in 1802 when Lord Elgin, the then British Ambassador in Constantinople, managed to organise the forceful separation of the majority of the sculptures from the Parthenon temple, and shipped them from Athens to England, there has raged a continual controversy over their rightful home. This is the first film on the subject, shot in the real locations, which shows by quoting from their own letters, what were the actual thoughts of Lord and Lady Elgin and their entourage at the time. Also by using the reports and engravings from artists and observers of the period, including Lord Byron's bitter attack on the whole proceedings, the film tries to explain Elgin's real motives, proving he was not saving the sculptures from pollution, nor from the Turks, but for himself.