Matthieu Zela has lived his life well. In fact, he's lived several lives well. Because Matthieu Zela's life is characterised by one amazing fact: his body stopped ageing before the end of the eighteenth century.
Starting in 1758, a young Matthieu flees Paris after witnessing his mother's brutal murder. His only companions are his younger brother Tomas and one true love, Dominique Sauvet. The story of his life takes us from the French Revolution to 1920s Hollywood, from the Great Exhibition to the Wall Street Crash, and by the end of the twentieth century, Matthieu has been an engineer, arogue, a movie mogul, a soldier, a financier, a lover to many, a cable TV executive and much more besides.