September, 1919: Fiume (now Rijeka, in Croatia) is an ostensibly Italian city on Yugoslavian soil. The situation is unacceptable for many Italians, including numerous war veterans, particularly the celebrated arditi. They decide to form a rogue army and and capture the city. Their Commandante is none other than Gabriele D’Annunzio, the champion of Italian jingoistic warmongering, who, at age 51 joined the Italian Royal Air Force during World War I.

Once Fiume was theirs, a slightly-over-a- yearlong artistic and political saga could begin. Having started out nationalist and patriotic, the adventure soon took a radically different turn: unions, feminism, and artistic experimentation sprang up; sexual freedom, nudism, and vegetarianism were all tested, and the use of both narcotics and psychedelic drugs was legalized.

But in late 1920, under pressure from the Allies, the government in Rome put a stop to the experiment by bombing the city. Gabriele D’Annunzio, the self-styled Regent of Carnaro, retired to a long exile on the banks of Lake Garda, far from the festive revolution.

Shortly after the end of World War I, a rogue army of Italian volunteers captures the city of Fiume, in Yugoslavia. Their leader is the most famous Italian writer of the time, the flamboyant dandy Gabriele D’Annunzio. For the fifteen months of his reign, the city becomes the theatre of a vast revolutionary experiment.