Trapped on shore, a captain fights desperately for a place on a ship

Once, Marius believes, the world was wide and the sea was infinite. Adventure and profit awaited any man bold enough to step aboard a ship and cast his lot with the open ocean.

But those days are gone. After a long and undistinguished career, Marius's reputation suffers an irreparable blow during the dark days of World War II when he refuses to go down with a sinking ship. It is the greatest crime a captain can commit, and it dooms him to hell on earth.

Trapped in Marseilles, Marius spends his days begging for a boat and his nights in a bitter, alcoholic stupor. The ocean has rejected him so fully, he thinks, that he doubts the waters would even allow him to drown. But as Marius learns, it's possible for a man to drown on dry land.