The opera begins with a public execution scene. A young man from Bazid awaits his death under the gaze of witnesses. The High Authority addresses his subjects through a megaphone, loud and agitated, talking about the inevitable fate of those who refuse to follow the state law. The Hype Man keeps interrupting the H. A.’s speech, either with nonsensical words or provocative ones. The young man turns into a monster, first his genitals, and then the whole body transforms in agony. His mother is in the public, and sings for mercy. First his genitals are castrated by the executioner and then he is decapitated. A poet-singer walks into the scene and starts reciting his poem. He leads us to the backbone of our narrative.
Bazid, a village, a microcosm of many places under oppression. The rumors run wild that systematic sterilizations are carrying out by way of mandatory vaccines. The fear triggers mass paranoia, and people of Bazid start panicking. A new family arrives, the family of Sisé. The father tries to organize the village to go underground and start an armed resistance. His young daughter Sisé talks to God in her tortured loneliness. As she enrolls in first grade, her sense of alienation increases with this new language she has to learn: the language of the majority. One day, the Inspector of Department of Education visits Sisé’s school, unaware of the absurd ‘surprise’ prepared by students –a piece of shit in front of a sculpture of the founder of the republic.
Sisé spends the day with her best friend, a young man who worries much about his future. The young man tells her that he wants to become a vaccine engineer and save money for better tomorrows where he would sail the oceans, leaving the dry soil of the East behind. The long conversation between Sisé and the young man signifies the racist conditions of assimilation under the manipulative force of vaccine policies. Sisé particularly feels puzzled by her friend’s state of being. She thinks she is not only losing a brother but also the innocence of youth. On her way back home, Sisé keeps telling herself that she needs to migrate to Axen, a big city of the West. Life in Bazid gets tougher and tougher each day as the military penetrates the village with force and destruction. At home, a monster appears between Sisé’s legs. She befriends her beast and smiles.
Sisé arrives in Axen with hope and excitement. Axen must be the city of optimism and progress, she thinks. She would soon discover that Axen is even more chaotic than Bazid, completely stripped away from morals and the importance of freedom, and is nothing but a hollow city of oppressive power. She finds a job as a waitress for private events and recommends her best friend to her employer. The young man accepts the offer but keeps repeating he would soon become a vaccine technician and make a lot of money in a short amount of time and sail the oceans. The two friends work for a dinner party given by a wealthy family. At the dinner party, the wife of an industrialist starts talking about revolution and anarchy as her body starts transforming. Outside, the transformed ones run amok in the streets. The chaos now takes over the West and reminds us of its inevitable nature including scenes of carnage.
Sisé’s best friend goes through several phases of testing before his approval for his employment. He turns into a beast, destroys the hospital, and heads to the shore, leaving the ruins behind. In the meantime, animals and children join the destruction knocking down slaughterhouses and schools. It becomes obvious that the transformed ones now are everywhere, and the riots are not limited to Bazid and the East. The State response equally increases in violence and the declaration of State of Emergency emerges.
Riots, now only riots matter. The chorus sings the hymns of resistance. The High Authority figure reappears. The stage becomes an Orwellian playground of power, corruption, and opposition. Sisé first appears in her transformed form. She then feels melancholic and runs away to quieter streets. In the back alleys, she finds an old man lying on the pavements. She tries to help the man, but then realizes that the old man is alive and fine. The old man starts sharing his story of rise and fall –a story of redemption, bravery, and morals over politics. The story triggers something in Sisé –she decides to go back to Bazid.
Sisé flies over the mountains like a fairy figure on her way back to Bazid, a place of terror and resistance. Then, she climbs up to Berélega, a mystical mountain of her home, and throws herself into the void.
The poet-singer reappears as a messenger of Future and reassures us that Sisé is now happy, in unison with her land –a land that is vast, both abstract and concrete, and abides.