The film opens with a scene of playwright Marin Držić's (Sven Medvešek) comedy Dundo Maroje being staged in front of the Rector's Palace in Dubrovnik, during the traditional Feast of St. Blaise.

Local aristocrats, ambassadors and the Rector himself (Miše Martinović) are attending the performance of the comedy play, which is an allegory about the hypocrisy and injustice of high society.

Zamagna's daughter Deša (Sandra Ceccarelli), a noblewoman and wife of the Spanish ship-owner De Cabrera, unsuccessfully tries to free her father, who eventually dies in a Ragusan dungeon.

Enraged by her father's demise, Deša joins the anti-government conspirators led by Lord Bučinić (Ljubomir Kerekeš) who plot against the Senate (the Ragusan parliament), and, hoping to gain political support abroad, leaves for the Duchy of Florence, itself a powerful city-state in Tuscany in present-day Italy.

Staying true to his libertarian beliefs, and unable to continue his work, Držić also decides to join the conspiracy and leaves for Florence.

Inspired by the progressive society of 16th-century Tuscany, Držić pens a draft of a new Ragusan statute, which he titles Libertas (Latin for "liberty"), which enshrines the freedoms of speech and creative expression.

A manhunt through Venetian streets and bridges ensues, in which Držić deliberately draws the pursuers to himself to lure them away from Deša, before escaping by jumping into a canal.

By 2000, Bulajić had recruited Ivo Brešan, Mirko Kovač and Feđa Šehović as screenwriters, as well as Vlado Ožbolt as a scenographer, but had not yet decided on the cast.

[5][6] By May, the shooting was behind schedule due to director's illness and hospitalization, and there were reports - denied by Aleksandar Črček, the film's producer - that the cast and the crew were not being paid.

[11][12] According to Croatian columnist and film critic Jurica Pavičić, a "small republic obsessed with independence, but totalitarian on the inside" is easily recognized as the 1990s Croatia,[12] which is a reading that Bulajić explicitly agreed with in a 2006 interview.

In his view, Libertas therefore "essentially repeats simplified dichotomies seen in earlier Bulajić's films, [...] The Man to Destroy (1979) in particular, about a progressive visionary and retrograde feudal elites".

[11] The critics disliked the poor dubbing,[5][19][20] the "unconvincing" and "forced" romance subplot,[11][20] and mixing of the 16th-century Ragusan dialect with modern Croatian.