Why does the young Parisian Stéphane arrive in the heart of winter at the Northern Station in Bucharest? And what is the meaning of the strange female singing he plays to people everywhere he goes? The capital of Romania turns out to be only a brief stage in an obsessional quest. Stéphane finds himself in Valachia, the unknown heart of the countryside where the ‘gypsy musicians’, the Lautaris, live. Old Isidor is Stéphane’s ferryman who helps him enter a chaotic world that is picaresque, violent, funny and irritating. Isidor is a bulibasha, a clan leader. He is a sly, moving and bombastic guy who initially uses ‘his Frenchman’ to make himself look more important than he is, but he gradually starts to enjoy his company more. Stéphane in turn relishes the pleasures of the gypsy people. The gadjo (alien) from Paris gradually finds his place among them without losing sight of his obsession: the gypsy choir, the woman’s voice that pursues him or that he pursues.
