After his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo and surrender to the British Empire, Napoleon Bonaparte is delivered into exile and imprisonment on St. Helena, setting the scene for a psychological character study of the fallen Emperor and those upon the island with him as he rakes over the ashes of his career.

After a failed escape attempt, the British Government offers him a chance for a return to limited power in France once again as a buffer against instability there; however, on the point of departure he is afflicted by the symptoms of stomach cancer and the offer is in consequence withdrawn, leaving him entrapped on the island and exiting history's stage.

The incident is credited as helping draw mainstream public attention to the existence of the blacklist and contributing to its end.

[2][3] Howard Barnes, an executive for Group W who knew Lamprell in radio, contacted the author suggesting his television play would make an ideal film and they had an investor willing to put up half the money.

[4] Lamprell wrote the part of the black general specifically for Moses Gunn who had been in a play of his, Hard Traveling. "