One hour before the State Opening of Parliament, something very unusual happens. The Prime Minister appears and demands an adjustment to the Queen's speech. The speech concerns aid to Africa. Even with all the pressure around the State Opening, Beatrix goes back in time, and remembers her banishment to Canada, the visit to the victims of the Flood disaster and the turbulence suffered by her parents at Palace Soestdijk during the Hofman case.
Morrison is a pathetic little boy of five years. A very happy little boy until the new baby comes. Because there is no place for Morrison, then to his aunt in the convent. Morrison makes every effort to prevent it. First he runs away, but if that fails he has a better plan. Not he should go, the baby must go. And that plan succeeds. All great people are in panic.
Dexter's controlled life gets thrown into confusion when a girl appears on his work that looks exactly like his girlfriend Stella. At home his beloved Stella doesn't understand what's going on and she starts questioning their relationship. Dexter's life deteriorates furthermore: traffic bills keep coming in, he is banned from his trusted working place, Stella breaks up with him, and his boss sends him on an immediate leave. When Dexter has crashed several cars, he is arrested by the police and taken to hospital. There he is told that a stroke has caused him a brain damage in his right hemisphere. Consequently he doesn't see left anymore and his sense of reality has been affected: he sees the same people everywhere. Dexter has to learn to live in a world wherein people look alike.
Disappointed with humanity, God wants to revoke his contract with humanity and wants to take back the stone tablets containing the ten commandments. To this end an angel is sent out to affect the personal lives of three humans so an appropriate child may be conceived.
A rich couple. He is obsessed with gadgets, she is a housewife growing more depressed and alcoholic by the day. Commercials on television form a cynic commentary on their lives. The neighborhood becomes the playground of youth gangs. A Ballardian commentary on and funny nightmare vision of modern life.
