"Ladies and gentlemen, it is our sad duty to announce that the emperor has just died!" The news spreads across Europe like wildfire, and yet Napoleon is alive. After an ingenious escape from Santa Elena, the one who has died is none other than the unfortunate impostor who supplanted him in prison. Meanwhile, Napoleon tries to return by ship to France to regain the throne posing as a certain Eugène Lenormand, although the crew ends up calling him Napoleon to make fun of him. In this awkward but enforced anonymity, the situation will confront him with countless errors, misunderstandings and setbacks, which will lead him to plunge more and more into the enigma of his own myth. But will he ever regain his identity? Who is he, now that the emperor is dead?