José Bação Leal was born in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1942, and died in Mozambique, during the colonial war, at 23 years old. A promising writer and thinker, he became a symbol of a youth, victim of a country that put in cause its own future in a meaningless war. All the people who were close to him were touched by his fascinating personality and his free spirit. "Poetically Exhausted, Vertically Alone" gives a portrait of this fascinating figure, through the places he had been, the testimonies of its close friends, the quality of his texts, with the historical context as background.