This film is inspired by an excerpt from William Gaddis’ 1955 novel, The Recognitions. In line with the author’s intent, this humorous narrative short criticizes frivolity in a world haunted by loss and filled with losers. ‘There is here everything imaginable in the way of confusion, darkness, and horror… I know from personal experience that in this place there is neither piety nor charity. Faith is absent; there is nothing holy, nothing just, nothing human. Friendship, modesty, and decency are unknown. Houses drip with lies. The hope of a future life is considered an illusion; virtue is regarded as proof of stupidity, and prostitution lead to fame.’ -Petrarch