It’s 1870. Paris is besieged by German invaders. Two million starving people are trapped inside the city walls during the coldest winter in memory. The only connection between the city and the rest of Europe is a fleet of balloons piloted by brave French aeronauts.
This is the true story of the flight of the Ville d’Orléans, the two men on board, and their mission to save the city. Leo Bezier, the agent, carries communiques that could change the course of the war, if only he can escape his own dark past. Paul Rolier, the aeronaut, yearns to return to his wife outside the city and thinks a balloon flight is all that stands between him and their happy reunion. Though they share the same mission, events threaten to turn the men against one another.
Both in France and on board the balloon, stark, internal rifts become an even greater danger than the foreign invaders. Long before revolutionaries occupied Wall Street in New York demanding economic equity, the Siege of Paris gave birth to the Paris Commune—with French workers demanding self rule at gunpoint.
