Haunted by the death of his parents, immigrant jews from Kerala, during the First World War, Stefan lives out his day in Paris selling curios in his shop. A chance encountr brings him in contact with Jacques, a Frenchman, son of a rich mother but eking out a living on his boaton the seine, fashioning miniature boats out of wood, busking in the Metr: in essence, unemployed. The friendship between the Frenchman and the immigrant is the real axis of the story, and the river is its witness. Both men know the intensity of love and longing for a woman, whether their women are constantly by their side or not. Stefan's passion for his wife Esther is all-consuming and eternal but though she reciprocates in her fashion, he cannot prevent her escaping from him when she chooses. Jacques' wife Tatiana has left him to paintt on the sidewalks of Montmatre, ever in search of a union with her muse, Dali. Jacques professes not to care, but she remains for him the one women he continues to seek. Jacques and Tatiana's daughter, Bianca, gentle and timid, loves each of her dysfunctional parents with equal intensity. She carves a space for herself in the narrative, keeping alive the innocence and vitality of youth. After Esther's death, Stefan, Jacques and Bianca go on a journey to Kerala, to the ancestral house that Esther has bequeathed to Bianca. There, Stefan meets a sudden and horrifying end - an event that sends Bianca eventually to another country, America, and Jacques back to Paris, the only city that he could ever call home, even in the absence of all whom he called family.