In this bonus prologue episode, Kino and Hermes arrive in a country where everyone is fixated on the construction of the city's endlessly tall tower for no other reason than just because. Even it's imminent collapse changes little.
Kino travels from country to country, staying in each one for only three days. In this first country, she finds only machines and no people at first. When she finds some people later on, no one is willing to talk to her.
Kino saves a trio of starving travelers, killing a trio of rabbits to feed them. Was the sacrifice of three rabbits worth the saving of three dubious travelers?
Kino meets a series of workers along a railroad, all of which are apparently performing pointless tasks. She tells each one a story which reflects their own, even if they don't realize it.
Kino and Hermes travel to a country where all newcomers must fight in a series of fights to the death, where the winner becomes a citizen and gets to make a law.
Kino continues her fights up the Colosseum ladder in order to pursue her own goal in this country. Meanwhile, the insane King puts on a puppet show to explain the country's past.
Kino meets a women named Nimya, who has dedicated her life to building a flying machine, in a country where everyone only cares about crop production, and no one takes her seriously.
Kino visits a country where almost all books are outlawed and kept in a central secure tower, and where writers are revolutionaries. She gets involved in their plot, and slowly loses her grip on what is real and what is fiction.
When looking for a place to fix Hermes' speedometer, Kino finds a family with an elderly housekeeper who claims she is a mechanical doll. Soon she realizes that nothing in this family is quite as it seems.
When traveling down a river, Kino and Hermes reflect back on a few encounters they have had. Each has a common thread of non-intervention, but with the idea that someone who never intervenes can still change things by observing.
Kino visits a country that has been at war for almost 200 years, but in the past 15 years has managed to solve the problem of having war casualties. But is the solution worse than the original problem?
Kino visits a country so pleasant with people so kind, that she wants to stay more than her customary three days. She meets a girl who reminds her of herself when she was small. She feels like she can make a home here, but at what cost?
