After 24 years in the Republic of Saltnatek, having established the first modern university, studied the structure of the Saltnatek language, and discovered a remote language variety, Dominic Missierna is ousted from his post. He returns to Europe to a profound indifference not only from his field but from the general public. While at a conference in Helsinki, lecturing to a 12-person audience in a capacious auditorium “the size of a concert hall,” Missierna sinks into a profound disappointment with the course of his life, disappointed that he is no longer young enough to have his work recognized and awarded for its genius.  In reflecting on his isolation, he considers inviting himself over to his children’s for Christmas but reckons they’ll treat him the same as all children treat their parents: like the “petit bourgeois” that always questions their parent’s worth. He laments that his children are not proud of him and, in tragic parallelism, the “eyes of Saltnatek had appraised him” and similarly found him to be worthless. He recalls how after the village children wanted crash helmets and motorcycles, he brought the helmets, but they were eventually used as planters. All these thoughts flooded his mind. The next day, he walks the streets of Helsinki, even visiting the Saltnatek consulate, but immediately feels out of place and unregarded. He resolves to spend the remainder of his life watching Europe crumble, thinking that if he'd spent his final years in Saltnatek, he'd die in even greater disgrace.