Requiem

Paul, the narrator, has an appointment with a guest who is none other than the ghost of the great Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa. He comes to Lisbon at noon, but then realises that ghosts usually make their appointments at midnight. Between noon and midnight, Paul meets a whole series of characters, a curious mixture of people from present-day Lisbon and ghosts from the past, the living and the dead crossing paths at the same moment in time. Until his final meeting with Pessoa, Paul crosses paths with restaurant owners, the madam of a brothel, a tramp, a cemetery caretaker, a taxi driver, an old gypsy woman, etc.... all of whom are firmly anchored in a segment of Lisbon culture that is slowly fading away.