Abstract: Whereas we tend to associate stories primarily with language, the verbal mode is not necessary to narrate even quite complex tales. This presentation analyses Marc-Antoine Mathieu’s completely wordless –> also known as Sens – published in 2014, to demonstrate that viewers understand this graphic novel by drawing on (1) their knowledge of everyday life; (2) their knowledge of story conventions; (3) their comprehension of the ways in which the medium of the graphic novel is able to narrate; (4) their embodied awareness of image schemas, specifically the SOURCE-PATH-GOAL schema that is at the root of the LIFE IS A JOURNEY metaphor; (5) familiarity with any other pertinent literary texts and cultural knowledge they happen to be able to recruit.