In March 1872, King Arthur of the Sew­ers and Slums embarks on a jour­ney across the Eng­lish Chan­nel, feel­ing com­pelled by a sense of duty and fear that pub­lic inter­est in Mesopotamia may wane. As his ship nav­i­gates the dark waters, Arthur con­tem­plates his moti­va­tions for uncov­er­ing ancient tablets while grap­pling with mem­o­ries of his mother’s ill­ness. Leav­ing Lon­don to seek adven­ture evokes a sense of remorse, as he feels he may be aban­don­ing her. When a fierce hail­storm strikes, Arthur wor­ries about his fate at sea, shar­ing a moment with a chat­ty mer­chant who encour­ages him to embrace the jour­ney.

Upon arriv­ing in Paris, Arthur is cap­ti­vat­ed by the vibrant city, with its bloom­ing flo­ra and rich his­to­ry that he has only encoun­tered through lit­er­a­ture. Wan­der­ing the ele­gant streets, he rev­els in a sense of free­dom, con­trast­ing his pre­vi­ous life in Lon­don. How­ev­er, he soon con­fronts the stark real­i­ty of pover­ty in the city’s under­bel­ly, notic­ing the dis­mal con­di­tions of the poor­er neigh­bor­hoods. This dichoto­my presents a real­i­ty where wealth allows for leisure­ly liv­ing, while the impov­er­ished strug­gle against the relent­less grind of time.

Arthur’s explo­ration leads him to the Lou­vre, where he immers­es him­self in Mesopotami­an arti­facts, feel­ing a deep con­nec­tion to his­tor­i­cal relics. After a brief stay, he boards a steam­er for the Mediter­ranean, where he encoun­ters a diverse group of pas­sen­gers, includ­ing a plant hunter head­ed to Bhutan. Despite bat­tling sea­sick­ness, Arthur finds won­der in the vast ocean and the places he pass­es, fuel­ing his desire to uncov­er the miss­ing lines of the Epic of Gil­gamesh.

Filled with doubt, Arthur grap­ples with feel­ings of inad­e­qua­cy as he pre­pares for his jour­ney to Nin­eveh. How­ev­er, as days at sea trans­form into exhil­a­rat­ing antic­i­pa­tion for the adven­tures ahead, he embraces the thrill of pur­su­ing his long-held aspi­ra­tions, sym­bol­ized by the three mag­i­cal syl­la­bles: Ni-ne-veh. Upon near­ing Con­stan­tino­ple, Arthur is immersed in the stun­ning scenery, but is met with skep­ti­cism from the cap­tain, who warns him of the city’s seduc­tive nature. As he arrives and search­es for the British Embassy, Arthur feels unease at being alone in a bustling, for­eign land, ulti­mate­ly reflect­ing on how past mem­o­ries inter­twine with the fresh expe­ri­ences await­ing him .