On July 19–21, 2001, over 200,000 people took to the streets of Genoa to protest against the ongoing G8 summit. Anti-globalization activists clashed with the police, with 23-year-old protester Carlo Giuliani shot dead after confronting a police vehicle. In the aftermath, the police organized a night raid on the Diaz high school, where around a hundred people between unarmed protesters—mostly students—and independent reporters who documented the police brutality during the protests had took shelter. What happened next was called by Amnesty International "the most serious breach of civil liberties in a democratic Western country since World War II."

The clever and passionate Madame De Saint-Ange has taken into consideration the education of the young and illiterate Eugenie and at the same time wants to seduce Marquis Dolmance, a famous homosexual philosopher. In two days, with the help of her brother, the Cavalier de Mirvel and the young servant Augustin, Madame will bring the company to completion with more or less mischievous geniuses, put in place through a combination of sensuality, eroticism and feeling.

The story of a middle-aged bookshop owner, who becomes embroiled in a surreal swirl of romance and family secrets of infidelity, her energy levels registering in bursts of electrical interference - causing lightbulbs, traffic lights, toasters and computers to spontaneously spark and malfunction.

Based on the case of the serial killer Donato Bilancia, who murdered 17 people between 1998 and 2000 in Genova.