Paris, 1928. Samuel Beckett is introduced to the notorious novelist James Joyce and his family and soon becomes like a new son in the household. He finds himself drawn to Joyce's gifted but troubled daughter Lucia äó_ What does Calico stand for? Calico is the coarse cotton wrapping of the mattress you lie on. It can also be the body restraints when you are sectioned off to an asylum. This is a carefully researched, strange love story.