Helena Makowska
Set against the back drop of Rome in crisis, General Marcus Vinicius returns to the city from the battle fields and falls in love with a Christian woman, Lygia. Caught in the grip of insanity, Nero's atrocities become more extreme and he burns Rome, laying the blame on the Christians. Vinicius races to save Lygia from the wrath of Nero as the empire of Rome collapses around them.
Judith, Count Robert de Bertan's daughter, is on holiday with her friend Louise and her father Marquis Emile de Fers. Meanwhile, banker Charles Delcourt has introduced De Bertan to the owner of a gambling-and-dance hall, Olga Tatschowas. De Bertan, unaware that his banker has lost the capital he gave him to invest at Olga's gambling tables, falls in love with Olga. He marries her, unaware that he is the victim of a plot hatched by Delcourt and Olga, who desires a title and De Bertan's possession.
The singer Cécile Hervey celebrates great achievements, while her sister Elda lives quietly with her aunt Claire on land. Elda is engaged to neighbor Bruno Leveson, but is irresistibly attracted by his brother Raoul, which she will marry. Raoul cheats on her, even before the marriage, with her sister Cecile.
Two young men move to the city in order to study. One of them gets entangled in a love triangle.
The model Fede loves the writer Arte, but he is enmeshed by the beautiful Femmina. Fede takes comfort in the Faun, a mythological creature who becomes animated from the stone sculpted by Arte. The love story with the Faun represents a return to a dreamt wildness impossible by now, for the modern man, to reach and maintain.
