Prologue

A starving Italian painter flees Paris in the winter of 1974. His destination -- a tiny private island lost in the Indian Ocean. His destiny -- a soul-crushing love triangle with a French nobleman and a haughty Parisian intellectual. His fate -- involuntary exile. And a predestined son, Laurent D'Allegro.

An adored father, why would he have inexplicably abandoned home?

At 33, a visual artist himself, Laurent is on the verge of fame and scandal. From bullied teen to heart breaker and serial seducer, he is the ugly duckling turned into a gorgeous swan – living only to devour other swans. Emotionally crippled, he oscillates between taking revenge and seeking redemption. True love, and a tragedy, will help him decide.

Algeria, Iceland, Italy, France, Morocco, Russia, Sweden, the US, remote islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans -- we crisscross the globe in this journey of a young man trying to trace his origins through a maze of lies. Traveling back and forth in time across five generations of an extraordinary family, understanding less as he discovers more, Laurent realizes to have loved and hated people in his life for the wrong reasons, which are not fully understood until -- the last canvas.

I am not who I am.

I am not what you think I am.

Please listen, and be kind.