Marc Bartoli is born to a Corsican mother, a celebrated rising opera singer and a French American attorney, the result of a brief affair at the turn of the 20th century. Raised largely apart from both parents, he spends his formative years in Paris, moving through boarding school and university. His life is irrevocably altered by a sequence of violent events. Bartoli is Corsican by blood, as are those involved in the violence. Corsican tradition of vendetta seeking personal justice remains strong. Bartoli comes to see revenge not as a choice, but as the means of survival in the face of continued threats to his life.