Roberto della Griva is an Italian nobleman living in 1643. His mission is to travel the South Pacific and discover the means by which navigators can understand the mystery of longitude. After a violent storm, however, Roberto finds himself shipwrecked--on a ship. Swept from the Amaryllis, he has managed to pull himself aboard the Daphne, anchored in the bay of a beautiful island. The ship is fully provisioned, but the crew is missing.

As Roberto explores the different cabinets in the hold, he remembers chapters from his youth: Ferrante, his imaginary evil brother; the siege of Casale, that meaningless chess move in the Thirty Years' War in which he lost his father; and the lessons given him on fencing, blasphemy, and the writing of love letters.