On an island, a president has reigned for nineteen years. Prior to his time as president, he was advised to have a couple of doubles in case of assassination. At first, the president thinks that having a double is unnecessary, but during his first year of presidency, a double is killed by an anarchist missile. While he does not know which of his doubles, who all used to be regular citizens, was killed, he starts to feel the need for them. The president wants the island to prosper. He initiates reforms, gives speeches, and attends various events. Sometimes the person who speaks at these speeches and events is a double, but because the president gives instructions to the doubles on how to speak, what to say, how to vote, and what promises to make, this is not a problem. The doubles are all trained in the president’s habits and mannerisms, which makes them almost indistinguishable from the real president. Even as the island’s infrastructure improves, the president still faces assassination attempts. In his ninth year, he is shot in the neck. While he does survive, he and his doubles are moved to a secure mansion. His doubles are given doubles, while the real president remains in the mansion. Occasionally, his doubles and their doubles are caught up in an assassination attempt, but no one knows that the real president never left his residence. The president’s advisors want him to stay in the mansion where there is no threat to his life. The doubles and their doubles eventually get their own separate residences because his advisors had concerns about anarchists creating their own double to sneak into the president’s mansion for an assassination attempt. The president’s people keep adding to the mansion’s security. The president only interacts with a blind servant who gives him his meals on a tray. He wears the same clothes and looks out at the same view from his window every day. The compound where he lives is called a prison to confuse the anarchists, but to him, it becomes a prison.