Back in Genoa for the first time in twenty-five years, to attend the funeral of his best friend from when he was growing up, Luca reunites with the old gang of yore. All of them are sure that the late lamented had brought it on himself, with his dissipated lifestyle. Not Luca: he wants to know, investigate, understand. He searches his memory, in a city as changed as he is, as characters and situations reemerge ghost-like from a buried past, along with Luca’s own true nature, which he thought he had definitively tamed.

1982. French actress Eddie is on the verge of collapse and travels to Rome accompanied by her loyal makeup artist, Valentina, to shoot a science-fiction film – a film that could be her last one.

Upon returning home from his Grand Embassy, Peter the Great enters into a prolonged war with Sweden to secure access to the Baltic Sea. His path to victory is paved with setbacks, treachery, and deceit. Only by overcoming these challenges will he become Emperor, find true love, and establish Russia as a great empire.