During Covid-19's lockdown, Dario Castagno haphazardly opens an antique trunk that had once belonged to a great aunt. As he spends his solitary days going through the content of portraits and documents, it transpires a fascinating micro-cosm of the author's surprising Waldensian heritage. By turns celebratory and reve-latory, the book is a bittersweet excursus through Dario's striking lineage and an uncanny alpine populace's history that endured pogroms and unspeakable prejudic-es for centuries.