The novel is made out of four intertwined parts that meet in the middle and make the story. The first part is called "The Emperor" and it follows a young Frenchman that got into Bonaparte's military to be his cook.
After meeting Bonaparte, Henri, our protagonist, becomes his personal cook, which the previous army cook starts hating him for, and follows him in his quest of conquering England. He meets and befriends many soldiers; one of him is Patrick, who was previously a priest, similar to Henri who studied to become a priest. Patrick has an unusual trait; one of his eyes is like a telescope allowing him to see in long distances. Henri decides to keep a diary to describe his experiences and Bonaparte's conquest as well as the man himself.
The second part is called The Queen of Spades and it follows a Venetian boatman's daughter called Villanelle. Venice is described as a curious place with a lot of different interesting people; the city is compared to a maze. Interesting boatman trait is that they are born with webbed feet that allow them to walk on water. That's why boatmen never take off their shoes.
Villanelle grows up to become a gambler and pickpocket. A part of her job at the casino is to occasionally dress as a man and that's how she meets a woman that steals her heart. One night, when she goes to visit her, she sees her with her husband and disappointed leaves with an intention to take a different direction in life.
The next part is called Zero Winter. Bonaparte takes his army in a delusional conquest of Russia which makes for considerable loses and hopelessness among the soldiers. Henri has been in the military for a long time now. He has seen a lot of terrible things and only dreams of going back home.
The Russian winter is devastating and Bonaparte's military is mercilessly destroying villages on the way leaving the people freeze to death. Henri feels that he has seen enough of terror and decides to escape. He tells Patrick of his plan, who is at that time in a company of strange woman, and the two decide to follow him in his escape.
It turns out that the strange woman is Villanelle from our previous story and Henri can't help but fall in love with her. Villanelle joined the military after being forced by her previous husband to do so. After being disappointed in love, she decided to marry the fat gambler who promised her the world. She escaped him one day and after he tracked her down he forced her to join Bonaparte's military.
Patrick dies of disease on the way and Villanelle takes Henri to Venice. There he meets her parents, and she takes him to the villa of the woman who stole her heart to retrieve it back to her. He succeeds and the two become very close.
One day, while rowing the boat, Henri gets ambushed by the military cook whose position he unintentionally stole. It turns out that the cook is Villanelle's previous husband as well and to protect himself and her, Henri kills him and rips out his heart. He is sentenced to a mad house on a neighboring rock island and Villanelle inherits her late husband's inheritance. She promises to do everything to bring him out.
The last part is called the Rock and it is about Henri's time in the mad house on the rock island. Bonaparte's dead and Henri begins to see the ghosts of the past which make him not want to leave that place. Villanelle visited him for a while and even made a plan for his escape but in vain, he didn't want to leave. Around that time she got pregnant and gave birth to a girl.
Henri spends his time in the madhouse writing, gardening and looking out of the window at Villanelle and his daughter who occasionally come near the island to be seen by him. "I'm telling you stories. Trust me."
