San Michele is a frontier penitentiary, where Bruno Testori, the prison governor, pursues his personal idea of justice, his fourth instance of judgement, above the law of the courts and the codes of criminal procedure. Because there’s a story behind each prisoner, a life gone off track: and even if beyond the walls of San Michele Bruno’s life is the first to have derailed, within them he is an absolute ruler: Ruthless with those who deserve it and unexpectedly merciful with everyone else, always following the principles of his own distorted and obscure morality. But when the kingdom seems to be about to collapse, threatened by imminent danger, Bruno finds himself fighting the most difficult of wars.