The Lost Ones

In the First World War, a deserted French soldier pretended to be a woman for years in order to escape execution. As Suzanne, Paul Grappe led a dissolute life in Parisian cabarets during the Roaring Twenties. But eventually, his disordered life and worsening mental state caught up with him.

In the 19th century, a young nobleman called Isabelle Eberhardt travelled to the Maghreb to learn about Arab culture and Islam. In Algeria she rode alone in the Sahara under the name Si Mahmoud, dressed in men's clothes. The eccentric, independent and rebellious woman made a name for herself as a writer before her tragically premature death.

Yukio Mishima is one of the most important authors of his generation. In his work, he dealt with the relationship between art and the body, and his own body's inevitable decline haunted him. At the age of 45, he committed suicide by Seppuku in front of a shocked and fascinated crowd.

In 1917, a young American journalist was sent to Russia to report on the revolution. In Petrograd, John Reed witnessed as much of the turmoil as he could and kept detailed records, which eventually become his famous book Ten Days That Shook the World. But the socialist dream turned sour, and Reed's life was as brief as it was brilliant.

Alma Mahler was a central figure of the Viennese art, literature and music scene in the early 20th century. She is considered a femme fatale who charmed many of the great artists of her day. But her own art - her music composition - was forbidden by Gustav Mahler, her first husband. She complied with his edict, but abandoning music for the sake of her marriage left her bitter and twisted.

Basile Zaharoff is one of the richest people of his time. The enigmatic, unscrupulous businessman led many lives. He was a tourist guide in Constantinople, artillery officer, bank clerk in Egypt and a diplomat. But most of all, he was an arms dealer who, as Europe's merchant of death, made a killing supplying both sides with the means to kill.

Séraphine de Senlis is one of the most important French painters of naïve painting. She was an uneducated woman who earned a living as a cleaning lady. But one day a vision from God told her to pick up a paint brush. Entirely self-taught, from then on she painted incessantly until her mental illness took over. She died in 1942 in a mental hospital.

Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in the worst place at the worst time twice over. On August 6, 1945, he was working in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb exploded over the city. Traumatised by the apocalyptic experience, he just wanted to go back home to his family. Except home was Nagasaki!

The French naval officer Benjamin Ullmo got addicted to opium in Vietnam in the early 20th century. Back in France, he continued to indulge his addiction and to meet the demands of a lover with expensive taste. In spiralling debt, he decided to steal confidential documents to blackmail the navy with.

Leonore Heinz worked in the 1950s as a secretary at the Foreign Office in Bonn where she met the charming Heinz Sütterlin. They got married. He asked her, under the guise of being afraid of the Cold War, to smuggle documents out of her office for him to look at. She complied, suspecting nothing. But eventually the ruse was discovered: he's a KGB spy. She was devastated and killed herself by hanging.