In the latest installment in her award-winning series, Marie-Claire Blais invites readers into the lives of three unforgettable characters and shows once again how creativity, hope, suffering, and exclusion intersect. There is the writer who is stranded in an airport on South Island, held captive because of a delayed flight. And a teenage musician, a former child prodigy living on the streets with his dog, wondering where he will get his next meal. Then there is Petites Cendres, who no longer dances or sings and refuses to get out of bed to attend the coronation of the new Queen of Night. By superimposing these three worlds, Blais continues her ambitious, compelling exploration of life in contemporary North America.