There are places where the words of novels and poems can be heard everywhere, and the names of the inhabitants bring to mind the heroes of world literature. The town of Timpamara has been such a place since a paper mill was built here many years ago. In the 1960s, an unmarked grave is discovered in the town cemetery, the secret of which is destined to be revealed to the lame librarian and cemetery keeper Astolfo Maglinverno. Like the medieval monk in Umberto Eco's novel, Malinverno is fascinated by the stories and mysteries of the universe. A book lover with a vivid imagination, Astolfo mixes the plots of novels with the destinies of Timpamarans - living and dead, but what intrigues him most is a tombstone without a name or date with a photograph of a woman. Over time, he decides to penetrate the secret of this person. Astolfo calls her Emma Rouault, like the heroine of Flaubert's Madame Bovary. A few months later, he finds a flower in front of Emma's gravestone. What does it mean? Flowers continue to appear until a few weeks later, Astolfo sees a woman leaving another flower, and to Astolfo's surprise, she is identical to the image of the mysterious Emma...