The work is a fictionalized biography of a great character, Francesco Petrarch. On the poet's frustration over unrequited love from Laura, the modern theme of desire is grafted. From here, the transformations aimed at tuning attention to the other are realized in the novel, whereby the protagonist becomes Laura with her own unprecedented version of love. Characters who had no voice in the official story also break the silence, such as the two natural sons and the mother unknown to us of one of them.
Imagination enters and leaves History without losing the notion of the present. We follow Petrarch's most formative experiences from his childhood, when his father emigrates, his studies in Bologna, which are funnelled by the death sentence of a student, justice with the absurdity of witnesses of nothing, and his meeting with Laura in Avignon. We soon realize that the essence of love is not possession and that woman is not a predetermined model from a man's mind. This is also why Laura is a fascinating copy of an unobtainable original. It is from her that we learn the version of love: the "bitter fera," the "sweet enemy," now becomes the symbol of a truce. And perhaps what is avoided is as significant as what is desired: "Perhaps love is the desire to flee from desire," as Laura says. In the background is the adventure of Cola di Rienzo, with the dreaming and the spectacle of politics. Petrarch settles for a few years in Milan under the auspices of the Visconti family. Here he is visited by Boccaccio, to narrate two unusual women's misfortunes. A stateless man, the poet travels to forget Laura, who dies during the plague carrying, who knows, a secret with her.
The work is timely because of the new point of view of the female character and will appeal to both young and adult readers. The narrative is stemmed in a humorous undertone; there is also a pedagogical corrective in it, evident in the story of the son. Finally, desire, as understood by Nostro, follows a red thread that links it to the psychoanalysis of today.