This short novel tells of a brief, intense love affair in 1950s San Francisco and New York. The narrator, Leo Percepied, a young writer, falls for Mardou Fox, a Black woman who belongs to a loose circle of artists and drifters known as the subterraneans. Their relationship is tender but troubled by his insecurity, his friends and the prejudices of the time. Kerouac reportedly wrote it in a few days, and its confessional, rapid prose shows his spontaneous method at full stretch. It is a candid study of desire, jealousy and bohemian city life.