Once upon a time there was a sabre…

When his grandfather dies, Samuel Livdweiss returns to his grandparents’ house. Everything seems normal, except for one thing: the sabre that had pride of place in the dining room has disappeared. Samuel decides to investigate this childhood memory with the help of his aunt Esther, a retired bookseller.
It’s not so much the sabre itself that fascinates him, but the story behind it, the succession of men and wars. Which ancestor did it date back to? Who was the heroic – or perhaps lawless – impostor VLRL (Victor Livdweiss Rex Livorum) who once ruled over a Baltic archipelago? A family myth endlessly reinvented by ageing uncles.