The one who opens this great novel will leave for Louisiana, visit the Cadjins, and share the destiny of three generations. The action begins in 1893 and ends in 1920. We will thus see Edius Raquin, the father, cunning, stubborn, the very example of these pioneer coureurs de bois who, in those times, did not hesitate to trust nature and the Good Lord. Then Edius's future son-in-law will appear, this famous Ferouche Ferraille Crowley, the man with slate eyes, the outlaw who draws quickly. Is that all? No, because Palestine Northwood, the sailor from Nantucket, a former harpooner, is also part of the celebration and the drama. To what extent? And why? This is the secret of this book where everyone, from Poitou, Ireland, Germany or Acadia, Creole or Yankee Indian, often a black cousin of the slaves, speaks French to make their way in the world. It is also important to know that we will meet Jim here, the grandson of Edius Raquin, and that the child discovered at the bottom of a New Orleans trash can will lead us, by magic, to the birth of ragtime and the blues, of which he will become a symbol under the name of Jimmy Trumpet.