Why was Bonaparte so desperate to decipher ancient Egyptian writing? Why was the path of Jean François Champollion, the young genius who managed to unravel the mystery of hieroglyphs, so thorny? What discovery did the great commander miss and why did the codebreaker die? What was known to the Egyptian pharaohs and was lost forever? Two mathematicians and an orientalist - Napoleon's devoted ally Morgan de Spagues, freedom-lover and frontier Orpheus Forjury and publisher Faros-J. Le Jansem - go with Napoleon to Egypt in search of the soul and essence of this mysterious country. Scientists are tormented by questions - and for half a century all three have been collecting evidence bit by bit in order to unravel the secret of Napoleon, the secret of Champollion and the secret of the pharaohs. The last of them will learn the truth on his deathbed - and this truth will change the lives of those who have already died, are approaching death, or will live forever.