Mariama and Damouré, two cousins, are in Venice looking for a relic—or fetish—lost a long time ago, as in one of Gentile Bellini’s famous paintings. Mariama shows Damouré the city, taking him to a boatshed to see how gondolas are built (a process very different from the way a dugout is made) or talking with him about those strange creatures that live on water, the Venetians........