In Portugal - one European country in crisis - a film director proposes to build fictional stories from the miserable reality he is immersed in. However, failing to find meaning in his work, he cowardly runs away and leaves the beautiful Scheherazade to stand in his shoes. She will require enthusiasm and courage so as not to bore the King with sad stories of this country! As nights go past, restlessness leads to desolation and in turn to enchantment. Therefore Scheherazade organises the stories she tells the King in three volumes. She begins like this: "It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that in a sad country among all countries...". Volume 2, The Desolate One In which Scheherazade tells of how desolation invaded men: "It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that a distressed Judge will cry instead of giving out her sentence on a night when all three moons are aligned. A runaway murderer will wander through the land for over forty days and will teletransport himself to escape the Guard while dreaming of prostitutes and partridges. A wounded cow will reminisce about a thousand-year-old olive tree while saying what she must say, which will sound none less than sad! The residents of a tower block in the suburbs will save parrots and piss inside lifts while surrounded by dead people and ghosts; including in fact a dog that...". And seeing the morning break, Scheherazade fell silent. - "Damned tales! If things continue this way my daughter will surely end up with her throat slit!" - the Grand-Vizier, Scheherazade's father, thinks in his palace in Bagdad.