Summary

In the prologue, Antonius Diogenes addresses his account to his ailing niece.

In "The Argos: Mission Year 65, Day 307 Inside Vault One," 14-year-old Konstance sits in " a circular vault" with a computer named Sybil (5). She studies "almost one hundred rectangular scraps" (5). The scraps are about a "lost Greek prose tale Cloud Cuckoo Land by the writer Antonius Diogenes" (6). The tale is about "a shepherd's journey to a utopian city in the sky," and his life as a man, donkey, bass, and crow (6). Diogenes found the story in a hidden chest. The translated folios are dated February 2020. She has been in "this room for almost a year" (7).

In One, "Stranger, Whoever You Are, Open This to Learn What Will Amaze You," in Folio A of Diogenes's Cloud Cuckoo Land, translated by Zeno Ninis, Aethon finds the tablets, transcribes them, and sends them to his...