París, 1 August, 1914. In Madame Durieux's pension, young people from all nations come together, in a cosmopolitan mix of races and tongues, all eager to enjoy the febrile vitality of the City of Light. But on that day, everything changes. France starts mobilising its men for the war against Germany. Friends become enemies and the fear that the advancing Prussian army will arrive at the doors to the city darkens the lives of these international young men and women. Some flee to their home countries; others hesitate. One of them, Agustí Calvet, under the pseudonym Gaziel, relates in a personal diary the electrifying, anxious experience of the first month of the World War, experienced from that little, until then happy, corner of Paris. Almost a century later, this exciting, heartrending "Diario de un estudiante" is re-published in a new translation.