"The Swedish Sailor and other stories" is about the search for friendship and acceptance by lonely boys deprived of the warmth and affection they had hoped to find at home and never did. Named Ingmar, Valerio, Armindo or Daniel, living in Sweden, West Berlin, Portugal or East Africa, their search is basically the same, and the friendship and acceptance they manage to find in the end proves sometimes to be more short-lived than they hoped.