"For years - so many, in fact, that it seemed like eternity - the fifty maidens struggled to fill the jar. In the end, thanks to some contrivance, they succeeded in their task. But now, too late, they realised that they were themselves within the jar. And so every one of them drowned."

The twenty-nine allegorical tales (of usually four or five pages' length) included in this volume, accompanied by short poetical interludes, all share two main features: first, they recast in concise fashion myths, folk beliefs and parables, counter-proposing other equally interesting interpretations of the world and events that surround us and determine what we are; second, they systematically deny us the obvious and the conventional by staking out a rightful place for the disturbing and the unexpected.
(G. Veis)

Stories from mythology and the Bible, traditional tales and episodes from classic literary works are all given an unexpected twist. The message of the works is recast, the moral overthrown, as they cease to function in the familiar way. The heroes, who, in their various guises, embody man outside time, present us with a new reading of age-old plots, thereby endeavouring to change the past and revise the way our moral code is composed. The reader may well be alarmed, or even shocked, by, for example, the world of 'The Cracked Mirror'. Yet after the first disorientation, one may feel that things could indeed be like this, as the objections to the conventional interpretations that we had never quite managed to banish from some corner of our minds are suddenly given vivid expression.