Rico has been banished to societyas margins; he has neither a roof over his head nor a steady income on which to depend. When a friend and fellow clochard dies of exposure after a night spent in the Paris metro, Rico decides to flee the northern cold for his beloved south, for Marseilles and the Mediterranean. From the celebrated author of the "Marseilles trilogy," this is both an affecting on-the-road novel and a tender exploration of loveas power both to heal and to destroy.