Mamluk is an unassuming, handsome young peasant who happens to have come along just in time to save the king from a fatal trap, and as a reward, the king offers him the amount of land he can mark off by walking around in one day but he must return to the starting point before sunset.

A string quartet of students is about to rehearse a new piece when everything is drowned out by the repeated loud call for a general mobilisation...