Convict Umberto is allowed to work outside prison during daytime as a librarian. There he falls for a beautiful woman who mistakes him for a volunteer helping the inmates — however, like a modern-day Cinderella, every day he must leave and be back to his cell before midnight... will they manage to live happily ever after?
In Italy, three men fall in love with three women. First a young engaged lawyer has a fling, then the middle-aged married man has a fling, then a retired man falls in love with his friend's daughter.
Elba island, 1814. Martino is a young teacher, idealist and strongly anti Napoleon, in love with the beautiful and noble Baroness Emily. The young man finds himself serving as librarian to the Great Emperor in exile, whom he deeply hates, yet soon begins recording Napoleon's memoirs, getting to know and learning to value the man behind the myth. Among seductions and affairs, expectations and fears, he will craft a precise portrait that nevertheless will not manage to hide a final, inevitable, disappointment.
