Set against a background of revolution and profiteering in a port town, this is the story of an unnamed narrator, who is hired by shadowy investors to protect chests of silver coins. He turns to a naive and beautiful sailor for assistance to evacuate the money from a trading emporium overrun by violent mobs. Full of hopeless naivety, the boy wants acknowledgement that lives have been destroyed for the sake of money. Unfortunately, the ruthless calculation of profit and loss has an eerie appeal the narrator can't shake. And the mobs are starting to close in.