1995. Carolina attends the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. To make ends meet, she draws male and female genitalia on imported hentai for the magazine Kiss Manga, on which she is known under the pseudonym Maria Grazia Graticola. Alfredo stagnates «in a footnote bibliographical» of his thesis on the ugly figures in Dostoevsky when he meets her in a particular situation.
The rotten canals of a plumbea Venice are the backdrop to the lives of two other university students, Fabrizio and Giampaolo and their hostess, the eccentric Mrs Cordellato who charges her rent in seminal fluid.
Between references to the world of erotic manga paper and personal vicissitudes, Alfredo implements his plan to conquer Carolina, ruthlessly digging into the personalities of the characters.
