A foreboding dream in which drunken Maidens knife her husband and her to death during their sleep prompts Queen Camilla of Meliad to dispatch her youngest son Nestor to summon Hercules. Nestor finds Hercules recovering from a drinking contest against the con-minded Saytre brothers Cletus and Clarin which Hercules entered to uncover their scheme. Nestor tells him that something terrible is going to happen at Meliads' annual Festival of Dionysus, and persuades Hercules to come with him to see the Queen. When they reach the city, Nestor leaves Hercules in a local tavern and sets off to alert his mother of their arrival. While in the pub, Hercules stops three thugs from roughing up an old man, who turns out to be the Seer Tiresias. As the Festival gets under way with happy revelers cramming the narrow streets, the Seer tells Hercules that the celebration which honors Dionysus, the god of wine, will be a joyous one as long as Dionysus deems the King worthy to rule for another year. If he doesn't, the ten beautiful virgins chosen for the Festival will become drunk on the first wine of the new harvest and slaughter the sleeping King in a murderous frenzy.
Later, Hercules is secretly summoned to the royal palace and Queen Camilla tells him of her dream in which her husband is murdered by the virgins. Insisting that she would never try to interfere with Dionysus will, she contends that it simply can't be her husbands time to die since he has been the finest king Meliad has ever known. Hercules trusts her instincts and vows to help her. Meanwhile, Nestor's older brother Pentheus has been secretly plotting to overthrow his father without giving his family the slightest indication of his true nature or intentions. He also covets Nestor's beautiful girlfriend Marysa, the lead maiden in the Festival. Allied with Gudrun, the commander of the palace guard, Pentheus prays to Ares, the god of war, to usurp the will of Dionysus. He promises Ares that Meliads' long era of peace will be over, and that nations will be conquered and peoples enslaved once again.
When Hercules and Nestor go to the virgin's chamber to begin investigating for the Queen, they are ambushed by Gudrun and his henchmen. Hercules leaps into action and takes on the guards one by one until Gudrun pulls a lever releasing a trap door, which sends Hercules and Nestor plummeting into a muck-filled dungeon. Suddenly, Pentheus appears and it becomes painfully clear to Nestor that his own brother is behind the sabotage.
Bored by years of peace in the land, Pentheus reveals that he has induced Ares to possess the wine and cause the virgins to slay the King. As the trap door slams shut, a hungry ten-foot eel-like creature slithers towards Hercules and Nestor. As the eel bursts from the water, Hercules strangles it in a deadly grip and uses it as a rope, lassoing a rock outcropping above. Hercules and Nestor climb to freedom just as the trumpets sound the beginning of the ceremony of the virgins.
By the time they reach the town square, it's too late for them to stop the virgins from drinking the possessed wine. Gudrun's soldiers spot Hercules, forcing him into a tavern, where the Seer and him spot Cletus and Clarin up to their old tricks. Giving them an option to avoid another beating, Hercules has them start a bar room brawl to distract the soldiers so Nestor and him can reach the royal chamber before the possessed virgins do. As the hypnotized maidens are passed hand to hand above the frenzied crowd, Hercules and Nestor hurry ahead to the castle to try to prevent the impending tragedy. Thwarting an attack by Gudrun, Hercules rushes on to the royal bed chamber to warn the King and Queen that the ceremony has been defiled by Ares. When the virgins reach the bed chamber, they grab the ceremonial silver daggers, pounce on the bed, and begin stabbing through the bedclothes. In the throne room on the other side of the door, Pentheus listens to the assassination. A devilish smile creases his face as he gleefully slides the crown onto his head.
When the throne room door bangs open and Pentheus spins around to welcome his virgins, he is shocked to find Hercules standing with the very much alive King and Queen. Unable to believe his eyes, Pentheus rushes into the bed chamber and finds pillows under the tattered sheets covered with red wine used to simulate blood. In a last ditch effort, Pentheus desperately charges to the ceremonial table and drinks from the jug of possessed wine. His veins now bulging with the fighting spirit of Ares, he becomes a genuine threat to Hercules. A fierce battle ensues until Hercules is finally able to outmaneuver his foe and break the spell over the wine. Nestor is reunited with the beautiful Marysa as King Iphicles proudly gazes on his youngest son and future heir to the throne, and Pentheus finds himself working in the castle dungeons as a punishment for trying to overthrow his father's reign. The Seer again contemplates joining up with Hercules, but the son of Zeus' live appears to have become a tad bit too dangerous for the danger-loving Seer as he's never seen or heard from again during Hercules' journeys.
Starring: Kevin Sorbo (Hercules)
Guest Starring: Norman Forsey (Tiresias), Jonathan Blick (Nestor), Warren Carl (Pentheus), Katrina Hobbs (Marysa), Todd Rippon (Gudrun), Noel Trevarthen (King Iphicles), Ilona Rodgers (Queen Camilla), Martyn Sanderson (Ancient Priest), Darren Warren (Clarin), Daniel Warren (Cletis), Bernard Moody (Old Drunk), John Mellor (Thug #1), Michael Dwyer (Thug #2), Arch Goodfellow (Pyturis), Patrick Kake (Hercules Double)
Written by Andrew Dettmann & Daniel Truly
Directed by Peter Ellis