While 1848 Paris lurches toward the first Presidential election of the Second Republic, a meek archivist has been engaged to catalogue several recently discovered cartons of documents from the reign of Louis XIV. Therin he uncovers a trove of documents the Sun King himself had ordered destroyed, and uncovers the long-suppressed scandal, The Affair of the Poisons. But when the new President proclaims himself Emperor, what happens to the stories that don’t fit the narratives power prefers?