In the tradition of such stark novels as those written by Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac or William Burroughs, Narcisa tells the story of Cigano, a former junkie who struggles to avoid falling back into the clutches of heroin, and his amorous downfall for Narcisa, a drug-addicted prostitute, as violent as she is passionate, who shares with him a destructive love that threatens to consume them both, but which neither of them is willing to give up. The lovers delve together into the underworld of Rio de Janeiro and New York, turning the sinister characters and environments of these underworlds into an unlikely setting for the unfolding of what is, above all, a heartbreaking story of amorous destruction.