Pierre Brun, Parisian historical novelist, has not written a book since the tragic death of is beloved wife five years ago. His life seems a wasteland from which there is no escape. In a bank vault he discovers a journal written between 1805 and 1807 by an ancestor, Anton Brun, a saddler to Napoleon Bonapart's Grande Armee. Pierre is drawn into this family history. A menage a trois involving Anton's wife, the beautiful Therese, and a brigadier-general of light cavalry is revealed. Has Pierre discovered a story to re-ignite his literary career? Living in the parallel worlds of modern-day Paris and Napoleonic France. Pierre falls deeper into his reclusive life. As he unravels the journal's narrative, the profound humanity of Anton Burn is unveiled as are the sympathetic characters of his wife and the cavalryman. In a miraculous way, two hundred years later the embers of the old love affair are still aglow.