In late seventeenth-century England, a cynical but intelligent philosopher named Ursus travels the countryside alongside Homo, a remarkably docile and loyal wolf.
Together, they live out of a small horse-drawn caravan that Homo pulls through difficult terrain, while Ursus occasionally lends a hand. The unlikely duo earns a meager living performing at parish fairs, markets, and street corners. Ursus uses his remarkable talents as a ventriloquist, medical healer, and self-proclaimed "merchant of superstition" to draw crowds and sell unique, hand-crafted herbal panaceas. Behind his theatrical showmanship, Ursus is a highly educated man, fluent in Latin and deeply knowledgeable in classical poetry and botany. Despite his profound learning, he remains impoverished, deeply misanthropic, and perpetually frustrated by human nature, frequently engaging in loud, solitary monologues inside his wagon.
The interior of their mobile home functions as both a laboratory and a direct reflection of Ursus’s worldview. He uses a dual-compartment iron stove to concurrently brew alchemical solutions and boil cheap potatoes, which were typically reserved for swine and convicts. The walls of the caravan are adorned with handwritten inscriptions detailing the rigid laws of English social hierarchy. These texts explicitly outline the staggering privileges of the aristocracy, highlighting that lords are completely immune from taking legal oaths, can legally demand the absolute submission of the common people, and possess exclusive legal immunities, including a historic privilege regarding simple homicide.
The story shifts into a darker and more volatile atmosphere during a freezing, snow-covered night on the rocky coast of Portland. A band of Comprachicos—notorious, ruthless criminals known for buying, mutilating, and trafficking children for profit—urgently prepares to flee England before the imminent arrival of the law. Operating under severe, newly enforced royal decrees that criminalize their trade, they hurriedly board an urk, a robust Dutch transport vessel, to escape across the turbulent sea. In their frantic rush to flee the shoreline and escape impending prosecution, they callously abandon a young, shivering, and barefoot boy alone in the dark on the freezing cliffs.
Battling the piercing wind and deep snow, the abandoned child wanders aimlessly through the desolate, wintry landscape. Along his treacherous path, he encounters a bleak gibbet holding a decaying corpse, intensifying the overwhelming horror of his isolation. Despite his exhaustion, the boy discovers a freezing, dying woman buried in the snow. Clutched in her frozen embrace is a barely breathing infant girl. Driven by a desperate instinct to survive, the boy rescues the baby, wrapping her protectively in his own jacket, and resumes his exhausting trek through the blinding storm. He eventually stumbles upon the dark, quiet town of Weymouth. Seeking shelter, he knocks on numerous closed doors, only to be repeatedly rejected by the sleeping inhabitants. Ultimately, his desperate journey leads him to Ursus's parked caravan. Taking pity on the freezing children, Ursus welcomes them inside, feeds them, and provides them with life-saving warmth, establishing a brand-new, makeshift family.