Chicago is America's best-kept secret. Clive James discovers there's more to it than memories of Al Capone and Mayor Daley. The architecture is unique and the music is sensational. The people are surprisingly forthright about the problems of living in a city where millions of dollars change hands at the board of trade, but little is done to solve the problems of gang violence in the housing projects where shootings are a daily event.

In the 1960s, as a young expatriate Australian writer, Clive James discovered Paris, which was his spiritual home. Twenty-five years ago he sat alone in the Left Bank cafes, wondering how to meet the women of Paris. This time he meets them: the writers, the models and the actresses who were part of a different world in his youth. He also meets the unchanging archenemy of any visitor - the Paris taxi driver.