First, there's Basile Matin, a young fellow who dreams of Faftao-Laoupo, the symbol of the penultimate sleep. Now Basile knows that if he keeps sleeping he will die, and the problem is that at his age he would rather have a lifetime to look forward to. Then, there's Igor, another young fellow who works a little and sort of studies. But, he's broke and he's bored. So even if he doesn't understand much of it, Basile's story interests Igor terribly. Last, there's Johnny Got. Sometime amateur journalist, sometime detective, and quite the hoodlum, he's interested in stories that are none of his business... And Basile's story fascinates him... it fascinates him so much that he sets out to find him.