Shot on location in Egypt, the story unfurls like an Italian Giallo as a group of people meet under strange circumstances, and one by one they are murdered. Gold is missing so you suspect a thief is trying to cover up his crime but that might be too obvious.
An English hermit Rupert Everett) has somehow been brought to France in the period following the French Revolution, and prior to the Napoleonic Era, a period (1795-1799) known as "The Directory." He eventually comes down out of his tree into a chateau owned by an Italian nobleman (Ugo Tognazzi) and his wife. Before long, the hermit has washed and bathed and become quite presentable, even charming. However, his appearance in their midst is like a sentence of death for many of those who associate with him.
Marchers in an Indepence Day celebration in Mexico are transformed into tiny soldiers, tiny articulated automatons, turning a serious event into childlike playfulness.
