"I live so that others may die." That is the conclusion reached by Piotr Nerbecki. Child of a loving land - owning peasant family, brought up in the Orthodox Christian faith, native to a stateless land fought over by four kingdoms. The whirlwind of suffering inevitably reached Piotr, when an evening raid resulted in the murders of his parents. As he grew into adulthood, the inescapable cruelty of the world he lived in only increased his rage and fury. All the while, the man who delivered the mortal wound to Piotr's father returns home from war. Ali al-Rahman is tormented by guilt and the memories of that land. After being reunited with family during a religious observance, he finds the woman he left behind and they marry. He wants to move on, he wants to have a family, and he wants to forget. Yet, as al-Rahman becomes a father and a public administrator, one from his past wants him to remember.