New York, December 1st, 1959. Eugene Bullard, an old, anonymous, African-American elevator operator, whose worn-out smile haunts the 70 floors of the Rockefeller Center, meets Louise Connell, a young, ambitious, white journalist who works for NBC television. They have nothing in common and in 1950’s America, their parallel worlds are not meant to converge. Yet this chance encounter is about to dramatically upset the course of their lives.

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Louise is about to embark on the biggest investigative journey of her career, revealing the true life story of this unassuming elevator operator: the grandson of a slave in the Deep South, he crossed the Atlantic to become a boxing champion, a veteran of two world wars, a celebrity in jazz-age Paris and a character in a Hemingway novel. And above all, flying a French plane emblazoned with the motto “All Blood Runs Red”, Eugene Bullard became the first ever black fighter pilot in the world… before systemic racism erased his name from history.

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But the minute Louise starts investigating his life, Eugene Bullard mysteriously disappears… What she doesn’t suspect is that, cancer-ridden and with only a month left to live, he has set off to return to where it all started, the Deep South of his childhood. There, he hopes to face his demons before he dies. And find redemption for unknown sins.

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Meanwhile, as Louise delves further into his past, she discovers that his existence is intertwined with some of 20th century’s most iconic figures: Josephine Baker, Louis Armstrong, Ernest Hemingway, Blaise Cendrars and others, famous and infamous, all step in to tell Eugene’s story. Together, they weave a vivid epic, full of humor, music, love, scandal, death-defying gambles and lifelong friendships. And each of these storytellers attempts to answer one essential question: what was the secret to his rags-to-riches success?

How did the poor, desperate grandson of a slave from Georgia transform into the rich, handsome darling of Paris, with glittering war medals on his chest and a French princess in his arms? A 7-pointed dice, the assistance of a voodoo god, and near-superhuman courage: each answer adds to the legend.

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But the stories Louise unearths gradually question her own understanding of the world and her place in it. How and why, at the height of his fame, did Eugene “Lucky Seven” Bullard suddenly lose it all? As Louise peels away layers of the story, she exposes a hidden wound. An unspeakable truth, written in blood.

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Clues to this haunting secret lead the young white journalist to journey deep into the American South. There she finds a cancer-ridden Eugene Bullard, and the missing piece of his broken soul: the unremarkable lynching of a black man, who died as he lived, without anyone paying attention.

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His brother, Toussaint...

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Whose death taught Eugene that a man’s worth is measured not by the dazzling episodes of a storied legend, but by how much dignity and kindness there is left when every day is a fight for a seat at the table. In the eyes of his family as well as his own, his brother was the real hero; Eugene merely chased vainglory in a faraway land.

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Louise realizes that she is the key to Eugene’s deliverance. She puts her own career on the line to bring his life story to the American public. And when the old elevator operator finally appears on NBC’s Today Show on the 22nd December 1959, his easy smile and sky-high tales win over the audience.

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With these few minutes of fame, brought about by Louise’s tenacity, Eugene Bullard inspires a nation.

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And he can finally live up to the brother who died fighting simply for the right to live.