This story takes place in a dystopian society in which a significant portion of the population are forced to live underground in a community that is constantly performing a type of amusement park, role-playing show. The members of this underground society are forced to participate in this fake performance within the pretext that, one day, visitors from above will come to the amusement park. For as long as the narrator, Brian, has known, however, no visitor has ever come underground from the world above.

Brian plays a Squatting Ghoul in this dystopian amusement park. He describes a typical day in his life, which includes going to a communal break room where his colleagues “mate” with one another in public. In the break room, Brian joins his friend Tom (Mr. Frame), who complains that his wife (whose role is in the “Victorian Weekend” segment of the park) is constantly staying in character and performing her accent, even when on break. Tom wonders what the point of this devotion to her work is, when there have never even been any visitors to perform for, and Brian worries that Tom has put him in a “bad spot” for speaking this aloud to him (143).