René, a melancholy history professor who can feel himself getting older all the time, returns to Paris after a colloquium on Napoleon in New York. There he reunited with his lively young assistant Marianne, who shares his passion for the Emperor and the writers who wrote about him. Stendhal, Chateaubriand, Bloy, Zweig, Dumas, Burgess: they all feed Marianne's fascination and René's antipathy for this "star of history" ‒ the perfect alibi for the two of them not to give a name to the love that grows between them during all-night discussions.
"Love in Waterloo" is followed by five more short stories of love and literature by François Bott.