Damouré, the manager, along with Lam and Illo, of an import/export firm in Ayorou called “Petit à Petit”, decides to build an apartment block and leaves for Paris to find out there “how people can live in houses with more than one storey”. In the city, he discovers the curious lifestyles and thinking of the Parisian tribe, who he describes in “Persian Letters” sent regularly to his companions, until one of them, believing him to have gone mad, sends Lam out after him. In Paris, Damouré and Lam buy a Bugatti convertible and meet Safi, Ariane and a “tramp”, Philippe. The group decides to go back to Africa and build a new house. But the two women and Philippe are unable to get used to this new life and leave. The only thing left to do for the three friends is to withdraw to a cabin on the river banks and meditate upon “modern society”