When the novel begins, Richard has just retired from a university where he was a philology professor. His wife has been dead for several years and he now has an abundance of time. The early chapters of the novel show Richard adjusting to his mundane routine of chores, meals, working in his garden, reading, and watching the lake. Richard is a highly trained academic whose perspective is often shaped by the Greek myths. When he sees a man with golden shoes, for instance, he immediately thinks of him as Hermes, the Greek messenger god with winged shoes.

When he finds himself drawn to the refugees, he is surprised. As he begins interviewing them, he tells himself that it is because he is going to write about them. But the more he hears, the more genuine his desire to help them becomes. As his relationships with the refugees deepen, he finds himself less suited to some of his former acquaintances, ignorant people like Monika and Jörg. Richard is an example of a well-intentioned person whose efforts—researching immigration, allowing Osarobo to visit him, giving Ithemba a ride to see his lawyer—still amount to little progress for the men, in legal terms of their citizenship.