In the summer of 1885, three Frenchmen arrived in London. The first was the Duke Edmond de Polignac, a typical gold -digging of the higher French strata, which he was going to find a rich American wife. The second was Count Robert Montesquiou-Fezensac, an average poet and an enthusiastic curiosite collector who always argued with someone. And the third was an ordinary citizen with an Italian name: Dr. Samuel Pozzi. Doctor, thinker and scientist. And he will become a guide in this story. What was the importance of the three stay? Barnes' man in a red coat is a portrait of Belle Époque, the beautiful times when the Eiffel Tower was completed in Paris and the beautiful Sarah Bernhardt was at the peak of his career - but also the times of bizarre fights, murders and trials, including the famous Dreyfus affair.