Towards the end of November 1816, a young English Romantic poet swam to the Island of S. Lazzaro of the Armenians. He had set out from the nearby Lido of Venice, and from that day onward, for three months, he paid regular visits and spent time on the island. A deep bond was to be born between the poet named Byron and the Armenian religious of the island, a bond that led him to a relationship of love with the Armenian language and culture, and which resulted in the first Armenian–English dictionary produced by Byron himself. Many mysteries of that stay on the small island are still hidden among the archives and objects preserved at S. Lazzaro, jealously guarded by the Armenian Mekhitarist Fathers. The author gained access to these archives by earning the trust and friendship of the religious through many years of acquaintance, and in this book he reveals every detail. On the centenary of the Armenian genocide, this historical novel stands as a necessary and profound act of love towards a land and a civilisation tormented through the centuries and scattered in a diaspora that spans every corner of the planet. A work of literary research that helps to understand the immense historical and cultural heritage lost in the tragic events of 1915, and what still remains of that civilisation and of those ancient Eastern traditions.