Everyone knows about the Battle of Trafalgar and Admiral Horatio Nelson ... but what happened to the man on the other side? April 1806. Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve lies dead in a provincial inn, his body marked by wounds too deliberate for accident — and too careful for rage. Now, Napoleon Bonaparte and his inner circle must confront not only the facts of the death, but the deeper decay it reveals beneath their triumphs. At the heart of the Empire, silence is strategy, and betrayal is survival. Where does the truth end, and where does the lie begin? Peace across Europe hangs in the balance. The war drums are starting. And history is always written by those who survive it.