Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses violence and threats of violence against women and graphic depictions of sex.

The work opens from Persephone Dimitriou’s point of view. Persephone is hiding with her younger sister, Psyche, from the crowds at an event in Dodona Tower, the building that belongs to the 13 rulers of their city state, Olympus. Their mother, Demeter, is in charge of food supply and logistics. The sisters are contemplating statues of the Thirteen leaders, whom Robert depicts as mortal oligarchs whose responsibilities echo those of the immortal gods of Greek myth. Persephone is fascinated by the statue of Hades—the title is a hereditary one that has died out. Persephone is intrigued by the fact that the lower half of the River Styx is still rarely crossed by upper-city dwellers, and that Hades’s title has never been renewed. She wonders aloud whether Hades was “different from the rest of them” (2).

Psyche cynically reminds her that all the rulers of Olympus are corrupt, as they know well due to their privileged, if dangerous, lives as the daughters of Demeter, who handles much of the city’s supply and logistics.