Once upon a time there was a castle in Westphalia which belonged to the Baron von Thunder den Trunck. He lived there with his wife and his daughter Cunegonde. A youth named Candide lived in the castle too. He was the son of one of the Baron's relations and, it seemed, of eighty hunters. A philosopher, Master Pangloss, also resided at the castle, a lover of Leibnitz's writings witch proved clearly that there can be no effect without cause and that, in the best of all possible worlds, the Baron's castle was the most beautiful of castles and the baroness the best of all possible Baronesses...