Frank Westerman tells the story of the 20th century through the lens of the history of Lipizzaner horses. The reader follows breathlessly as crowned heads and dictators vie for these perfect animals, gaining astonishing insights into human self-perception and the quest for personal perfection. "When you touch a Lipizzaner, you touch history," Frank Westerman was taught as a child. Years later, as a traveling journalist and writer tracing the footsteps of the Lipizzaners, he discovered that this history is eerie and profound. It begins in present-day Slovenia, in Lipica, and at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, where the living crown jewels of the Habsburg Empire are trained. After World War I, Italians, Austrians, and Czechs fight over the valuable breed. Hitler is captivated by the whites.