Olivier is a French aristocrat, the traumatised child of survivors of the revolution. Parrot, the son of an itinerant English printer, wanted to be an artist but has ended up a servant.
When the young Olivier sets sail for the New World - ostensibly to study its prisons, but in reality to avoid yet another revolution - Parrot is sent with him, as spy, protector, foe and foil. Throughout their adventures with love and goal, money and painting, they make an unlikely pair. But where better for unlikely things to flourish than in the glorious, brand-new democratic experiment, America?
