From the introduction: In the '70s and '80s, France experiences mass unemployment. The hope of a revolution which would give a future to the young is as dead and buried as Malik Ouekekin. The youth now cling like a lichen to the cold concrete of the gray bars in the Paris suburbs. Stories of rival gangs and rival factions (skins, lads, mods, bikers, etc.), stories of dope but also of tragic love, all this blooms in the "news items" columns of the dailies.