From the son of a guest-worker to a powerful building contractor – the comet-like rise and fall of Massimo Marini. Smuggled into Switzerland in a suitcase as a baby, he was kept hidden by his parents for eight years so they would not lose their work permit. His father slogged his way up to the echelons of successful business-men – all for Massimo's sake so that he should have it easier. Massimo's life does not follow the smoothest of courses and is peppered with incident, peaks and troughs: from Italian immigrant child to big cheese in Zurich society; from protestor outside the opera house to opera house patron; from existential philosopher to building contractor; from the left to the right; from abysses to glittering heights; from the south to the north. Until he meets the woman who will be the crowning glory of his happiness – and its destroyer. A wide-reaching panorama of society and the portrait of a sparkly, eccentric personality.