Mancini tells his lifes story to two cops, while he is being held in custody, and questioned, due to a crime he committed.
Mancini was fat kid, whose father spent most of his time working to provide for his two sons (which means, of course, that Mancini had a brother).
One day when Mancini drove a car drunk, and his bro was with him, there was a carcrash.
Later in life he became a food critic and got married.
One day he found out that his father is dying of cancer.
He visited him in the hospital (where his father was mostly sleeping, and when he would wake up, he would be delirious). His father did not wake up, and Mancini left with fright. He had felt something strange. A feeling of lightness and freedom. He wanted to feel it again. Then he had an urge to go. Begin a new, different chapter in his life. This he did.
He started to live in the wild, where he felt it. He would also get drunk, because his faforite beverage is a great amount of booze.
He found a colony of poor illegal immigrants. Their leader wanted him to joint them, but he refused.
He did befriend one of them, and got a companion out of him. They continued to live in the wild.