Year 2021: the world is in complete decadence. Poisonous smokes, oppressive atmosphere, bleakness, gases and fumes of any kind, in a dense and unhealthy mist, these are the most common elements. Big crowds, almost all of them with white hair, move fast, in an obsessive frenzy. They do not look at each other, they move among as many people who are lying on the ground, lobotomized and apparently dead, if not for some minor movements. Everywhere the continuos and tormenting order “ Kissing is forbidden” can be heard. This prohibition is justified by the exasperating and annoying announcements “Danger of infection – Epidemic” that are continuously shown on television, sent on the air by radio, through adverts and dramatic appeals by the Ministry of Health. On big posters, electronic flashing signs, loudspeakers along the streets: everywhere people can see two mouth cancelled by a huge red X, like a sign of danger.
The very few transgressors are taken away by the Medical Police (MedPol), made up of strange armed people, half soldiers and half nurses. The transgressor is also immediately forced to wear a kind of leather and metal muzzle for an indefinite period.
The agents of Medical Police work in pairs, and they too run around on foot, or drive their small nifty means of transport.
Octo, a young man under thirty, is an exception in this world. He is a lonely person; he used to make toys. But he is now unemployed, as no children have been born in the last 20 years. He spends most of his time in his old workshop that he uses as his house, repairing and making toys, which nobody wants anymore. When Octo needs money, he sells one of the paintings, he inherited from his grandmother, to the dealers of art, the only financially strong aspect of economy after the world crisis of 2011.