This fictionalized biography of Guy de Maupassant uses his dying days, suffering under the last ravages of syphilis, to anchor a series of flashbacks that bring his life into view -- though much of that view is tempered by the famed author's passion for sexual encounters. The rest of the vignettes on his life highlight important literary figures, his mother, his lesbian friend Gisele d'Estoc, and various other players. All seem to swirl together as the writer's mind is lost to madness and approaching death.