By the 14th century, the Byzantine Empire was, if not on the verge of actual collapse, at least seriously decadent and clearly on its last legs. The hungry wolves of Europe were preparing to dine on its corpse, and as a result the Byzantine army and its allies were constantly engaged in battles and skirmishes. In this story, a widow lives in the 14th-century Byzantine village of Doxobus with her son Xenos. She forms a relationship with a village elder, and when she gives birth to the elder’s son, her son from her previous marriage is sent to live in a monastery.

In the future land of Lethia where the laws of Goldfish apply (it is required to laugh at stupid jokes and the harm done to others, not to think or read) the doors take control of the apartments.Kappa, an adult retrainer in the laws of Goldfish, is banished from his door to the stairwell of his apartment building. There, the commissioner of New Morals, Marcos Renieris, delivers to him for reforming the widow Niobe, whose crime lies in the fact that she mourns excessively for her dead husband and that she reads Sophocles' Antigone. Niobe asks Kappa to love her; Kappa hesitates; Niobe runs away from him and he remains trapped in the stairwell.