The series is based largely on the biography of Leonardo elaborated by Giorgio Vasari in his Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori, dramatizing the life of the Italian Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), starred by Philippe Leroy.

[1] Each episode tells a part of the life and works of Leonardo da Vinci, from his birth to his death in France in the arms of King Francis I.

The particularity of the series is to stage the narrator in the 20th century who moves through the places of the story, and compares the events of the artist's life with the sources of the time.

The final credits feature Ornella Vanoni singing Leonardo's famous aphorism, the musical basis for which was created by the Romanian composer Roman Vlad.

In the English-dubbed narration, Ludovico Sforza's Milan is said to have fallen in 1499 to the French King Louis VII (reigned 1137–1180).