In 1814 Napoleon arrives at the Island of Elba, where he has been sent into exile, welcomed enthusiastically by the common people and the local nobles. But there is one person who is not celebrating: the young Martino Papucci, the youngest son of a family of merchants of Portoferraio, an idealist and libertarian teacher, a budding poet and the libertine lover of the beautiful, mature Baroness Emilia. Martino hates the former Emperor and every night dreams of murdering him, to take revenge for the betrayed revolutionary ideals and the many youths sent to be massacred on the battlefields throughout Europe. So, when he is offered the opportunity of becoming the clerk and librarian of the new King of Elba, the young man accepts with the secret intent of at last committing the murder he feels he is predestined to commit. However, the undertaking turns out to be far more complicated than expected: in the boredom of his exile, Bonaparte enjoys ensnaring the young revolutionary, whose hostility he has probably perceived right from the very beginning, by appearing as a Hero pathetically on the wane, defeated, tired and repentant.
The encounter between the naivety and idealism of a twenty-year-old and the disenchantment of adult age and the guile of Power takes place amid seductions and betrayals, failed attempts and astonishing confessions… up until the mocking and surprising final disappointment…