This is the story of the circumstances that led Carolus Barbemuche, a man of letters and a platonic philosopher, to become a member of the bohemian group in the twenty-fourth year of his life.

At that time, Gustave Colline, the great philosopher, Marcel, the great artist, Schaunard, the great musician, and Rodolphe, the great poet—for this is how they referred to each other—regularly went to the Café Momus, where they were known as the four musketeers because they were always seen together. Most of the time, they came and went together, they played together and sometimes they didn't pay the bill, but always with the togetherness worthy of a Conservatory orchestra performance.

For their meeting place, they’d chosen a room that once held forty people comfortably, but now they always found themselves alone because they’d succeeded in making the place unbearable for all the other regulars.

Anyone who just happened to be passing by and ventured into their den immediately became the victim of this uncontrollable quartet, and while these unfortunate customers would usually escape, they would not have succeeded in getting newspapers or coffee. In any case, their outrageous commentaries on the arts, human feelings and political economy were enough to turn the coffee cream sour. The conversations of the four companions were of such a nature that the waiter who served them, a man in the very prime of life, went mad.

After some time, things had gotten so out of control that the café owner finally ran out of patience. He approached them very seriously one evening to discuss his grievances: