A northern, coastal city, from which the countryside disappeared many a year ago, surrounded by industries responsible for the spurts of exaggerated growth that nurture immigration and workers, outlining a horizon of chimneys, rooftops and hopes, of future uprootings. A group of men who daily walk the sloping streets, looking for life's emergency exits. Long-term fear, end-(and beginning)-of-the-month tightrope walkers with neither safety net nor audience, no final applause, making their way daily along the tightrope of casual work, scaffolding their hopes and taking shelter in their occasional pleasures, conversation, routine, as if the shipwreck from which they daily attempt to save themselves wasn't theirs, while they talk about things and laugh, about everything and nothing particular, hopeful, at peace, on a sunny Monday morning.