May 1946: After nine years of being locked up, Antonin Artaud is released from the asylum at Rodez, and returns to Paris and his friends. This day will be one of illumination for Jacques Prevel. He is a young poet, and will follow Artaud in his wandering between their nursing home at Ivry and Saint Germain des Prés while pursuing the same quest for poetry, drugs, and the absolute.Prevel becomes disciple, pusher, and companion to this man of genius, whose story he relates. In post-war Paris where Prevel lives, sometimes in misery and suffering, he shares his life between two women, Rolande and Jany, while at the same time continuing his attachment to Antonin Artaud, the man who was his only friend.