A new treasure hunt – centered around the legendary mirror of Alexander the Great – takes Corto Maltese from Venice to Rhodes. Here, he finds himself in the political maelstrom of the crumbling Ottoman Empire, from which the Turkish Republic emerges. This comes with a great deal of bloodshed. Corto encounters Enver Pasha, the leader of the Young Turks, as well as his rival, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. His situation is particularly precarious because Corto apparently has a doppelgänger: the Turkish rebel Turan Chevket.