Peru, 1887. All over the country, people are talking about one man and his incredible discovery. Augusto Berns claims to have found the lost city of the Incas, and the news spreads from Lima to London and New York. But who is the supposed discoverer of El Dorado? It all begins with a young man who washes gold in the Rhine, who loses himself in dreams of new worlds, who idolizes Alexander von Humboldt and whose encounter with the famous explorer makes him take a momentous decision. Determined to find the City of Gold, Berns embarks on a perilous journey to Peru, where he will become an unwitting hero during the wars of independence, before beginning to gather the material he needs for his expedition while working as a railway engineer. Together with Harry Singer, an American, he climbs the Andes and struggles through the deepest jungles before reaching the most fantastic place imaginable. Recent historical research has revealed that the legendary city of Machu Picchu was discovered by a German explorer. In this fascinating novel Sabrina Janesch tells her gripping story and builds a powerful narrative that immerses readers in an exotic world and shows what it means to live for a dream.