A man wakes to discover that he is Gregor Samsa. He is alone in a barren room, and he has no idea where he is, or what he should do — he only knows that he is now a human named Gregor Samsa. Samsa examines his human body, which is awkward and unwieldy. Once he figures out how to move around in his body, Samsa realizes that he is ravenous. He heads downstairs, where he smells food. Samsa finds a dining room with the table full of steaming dishes. There are five place settings at the table, but the other members of the dining party are nowhere to be seen. Samsa shovels food into his mouth, and eats almost everything on the table. When he is full, he realizes that he is cold, because he is stark naked. He also knows, without being quite sure how he knows, that if another person were to appear, his naked state would be an issue. Samsa goes back upstairs and enters one of the other doors in the upstairs hallway to find a furnished room. He puts on a dressing gown he finds in the closet. Later, the doorbell rings, and Samsa opens the front door to find a small, hunchbacked woman. She asks if she is at the Samsa residence. When Samsa replies that she is, the woman asks to see the lock that is causing the trouble. Samsa knows nothing about a broken lock, nor where the rest of his family might be. The woman is annoyed, but insists on finding the broken lock since she travelled through all the 'turmoil' outside to get to him. Samsa and the woman find that the broken lock belongs to the door into the room in which Samsa woke that morning. The woman says she cannot fix the lock. As the woman turns to leave, she notices that Samsa has an erection through his dressing gown. Samsa is earnest about meaning her no harm, and the woman concludes that Samsa is a bit mentally slow. As the woman leaves, Samsa asks if he can see the woman again. She says it is difficult to get to his residence as there are tanks all across Prague, but she will come back if she figures out how to fix his lock. After she leaves, Samsa goes back upstairs to figure out how to dress properly.