Synopsis

Giacomo Leopardi is in Naples, tired, exhausted, and ill. There are many people who would have every interest in seizing his possessions, now that he's become famous. And there are his friends, good friends who know this well and are ready to defend him. They help him escape danger by staging his death, complete with corpse and funeral, while he sets sail for the Spanish ports, then to Calais, and finally, by land, to Paris. But things don't go as planned: a pirate ship encounters the one carrying him, and Giacomo, ill and shaken, is cared for by a beautiful dark-haired girl, Josephine. It's love, finally: true, fulfilled, physical, profound. Giacomo and Josephine conceive a child. They are happy; they can be. But that's not the end of the story..