Through a cast which includes West African anglophones, West African francophones, North Africans, Caribbean islanders and Afro-Americans, this long-lost novel explores racial and sexual identity and the nature of sexual desire. The central figure in the book is Lafala, a West Indian whose story begins with the loss of his legs whilst a stowaway on a ship to the USA. Financially compensated for his crippling accident, he returns to Marseille and his semi-underworld life. Here a series of characters compete for Lafala's sexual, social and political attention, revealing something of the extraordinary multi cultural life of Marseille in the early twentieth century.