This is a dark book illuminated by fire. The struggle between good and evil is set in a modern context mixing terrorism with naive saintliness, sexuality, and incessant attempts to escape from the mundane. The picaresque hero, dreadfully maimed by fire, suffers and survives in a cruel world. He and the twins Sophie and Toni, who are equally maimed spiritually, move towards a climactic reckoning amid another fire.