In Paris, the overflowing of the Seine forces a high-ranking French official to make a profound examination of conscience on the patronage practices of which he has been protagonist during his career; a Belgian painter from Ostend is called to come to terms with his incipient old age and with his political convictions; in a snowy Riga a murder reveals to a Latvian lawyer the unthinkable origins of his father. And again: the discovery of a bibliophile induces two diplomats, one French, the other British, to worry about the risks of a new possible conflict, a few years after the end of the Second World War; a Spanish researcher discovers, in the federal archives of Koblenz, documents that open up new and unedited leads on the fate of Leonardo da Vinci's remains...
In different eras and places of the turbulent and dramatic European twentieth century, five stories address issues that from individual become universal, entrusting the characters with reflection on some evils of our time: corruption, greed, familism, prejudice, fanaticism, self-promotion.
