At the dawn of the second Italian campaign, in May 1800, the French troops crossed the alpine pass of Grand-Saint-Bernard with difficulty.
An episode aiming to stage a propagandist version of the romantic hero Bonaparte, Georgin and Pellerin paint the future emperor far from home, braving ravines, torrents and precipices, indistinguishable from his men.
The army is represented trampling the snow in the crevices, dragging behind it the cannons and the hollowed out trees carrying their weapons, under the orders of a skillful Bonaparte, a true engineer.