Italy, 2035. Mansfield, Stendhal and Buzzati are friends and partisans fighting against the regime. Engaged in relays of coded messages hidden in ciphered books, they are forced into a race against time: the fascists are about to take the town of Ovada.

Twenty years in the life of "Il Califfo" Franco Califano, from the Rome of the Dolce Vita to the 1984 concert at the Teatro Parioli, through great musical successes, loves, falls, and comebacks.