'Uncle Bernac: A Memory of the Empire' is a novel written by Arthur Conan Doyle. The story takes place near the northern coast of France in the early 1800s, when Napoleon is the reigning emperor and still married to Josephine. Louis de Lavale, a French exile who spent his childhood in England, has received an invitation from his uncle Charles Bernac to return to France and join Napoleon's military. Despite receiving an anonymous letter warning him to stay away, Louis sets foot on French soil near his family's former estate, now in the possession of Uncle Bernac, and embarks on an adventurous journey.