In richly visual language Dali describes the lives and loves of a group of aristocratic characters who, in their beauty, luxury, and extravagance, symbolize the decadent Europe of the 1930s. The story of the tangled lives of the protagonists, from the February riots of 1934 in Paris to the closing days of the war, is a brilliant vehicle for Dali's ideas, and an evocation of pre-war Europe. Valuable not only for Dali's own specially drawn illustrations, but also because it synthesizes all of the themes in Dali's art.