In an island fortress prison four political prisoners, sentenced to death for plotting against the Bourbon monarchy, spend their last night before going to the guillotine. If they betray the name of their mysterious leader, who is still at large, they might yet earn a last-minute reprieve. As they see the scaffold being erected in the courtyard the four men have the opportunity to examine their past to find a pattern to lives that may soon be sacrificed. Each one – the baron, the soldier, the poet and the student – has a tale to tell and each one has an interest in weaving a web of deception. Who will remain, at the end, trapped within the night’s lies? Subtly constructed and tautly written, Bufalino’s fable of life and death lingers in the imagination long after it has been read.
