It takes place in Marseilles, where a young man named Marius working in a café dreams of going to sea, his obsession eventually overcoming his developing romance with Fanny, a local girl.

Two years later a British version Sea Fever by John Van Druten was staged unsuccessfully in the West End.

In 1931 the play was turned into a film Marius directed by Alexander Korda for the French subsidiary of Paramount Pictures with a screenplay written by Pagnol himself.

In 1938 this was remade as an American film Port of Seven Seas by James Whale.

An audio cast recording of select scenes, with minor rewritings, was made at the studios Pelouze in Paris in March 1932 and on 2 and 14 December 1933 for Columbia Records by the main cast (Pierre Fresnay, Orane Demazis, Raimu, Fernand Charpin, Paul Dullac, Robert Vattier, Henri Vilbert).