Various things happen, but in reality, most of them go unnoticed.

The French ambassador watches the road with his eyes. Everything is quiet, not a leaf moves. The Japanese ambassador consults the reports and thinks he is discovering something.

The guards lie in wait with binoculars at their posts. Not even a mosquito passes through the bars.

And yet, all this time, everything is turned upside down. People act like crazy to flee from their homeland, stumbling, starting again, on foot, in inflatable boats, hidden in the holds of ships or in the trailers of trucks, hanging on with nails and teeth from the joints of the wagons, from the hairy belly of sheep, climbing on sleds, among the wings of eagles, on the branched antlers of reindeer.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]