August 1916, the death cell of a London prison. Roger Casement reflects on his years in the Belgian Congo, where he wrote a report for the British government on colonial atrocities. He recalls his childhood in Ireland and his ambiguous background from a Catholic-Protestant family. He remembers the year 1910, when he exposed the horrors of a company operating in the Amazon with British capital. And he thinks of his true mission, the trip to Berlin, where he seeks support for the Irish independence movement. However, amidst the turmoil of World War I, he finds himself caught between all fronts and betrayed by those he believes he loves. Mario Vargas Llosa powerfully portrays the life, the inner and outer struggles of the adventurous idealist Roger Casement from Ireland, the dream of a Celt for a free, peaceful world.