The novel by the famous Italian writer, who has not previously been translated into Russian, Alberto Bevilacqua, is written about the scandalous youth of Zelia Grossi, the main character, leading a dissolute vagabond life in the brothels of the Po Delta and about the scandalous youth of Italy in the period between the two wars. The narrative has little in common with a realistic saga and clearly tends towards a mythological and symbolic beginning.