William Gerhardie's comic masterpiece is the unforgettable tale of an eccentric Belgian family living in the Far East through the uncertain years after the First World War and the Russian Revolution. Filled with a host of bizarre characters Ð depressives, obsessives, sex maniacs, hypochondriacs Ð Gerhardie paints a wonderfully absurd and directionless world where the comic and tragic are irrevocably entwined.