Adapted from the best-seller, the films is a road movie full of music and poetry, driving us from the hot districts of Marseille, to Paris, Montrealand Dakar. Paulo, the young writer, follows Richard, the old musician, in his wanderings, encounters, love stories and will share his vision of life. Richard transmits to Paulo his crazy and strange experience, opening the door to an enchanting world of passion.

In August 1792, on the eve of the attack on the Tuileries, Catherine Hubscher, a laundress in Paris, met a sergeant and an artillery lieutenant who would become respectively Marshal Lefèvre and Emperor Napoleon I. 1810. Napoleon was about to marry Marie-Louise. Fearing the inconstancies and moral lessons of Marshal Lefebvre, the emperor asked her husband to keep her away from the wedding ceremonies. He is unaware that the hotheaded young woman has received a personal invitation from the Austrian embassy.

While France is on strike, Jean, a Parisian bookseller, opens his shop. A former trade unionist, he has in fact decided not to take part in the movement. However, a phone call from his friend René awakens his enthusiasm.