A group of humans live on a habitat called Europa, which is running out of resources. In order to survive, they need to convince the giant millipedes who live on the planet Gehenna to allow them to co-habitate. The millipedes, unfortunately, do not welcome the idea and refuse all monetary offers. The Europans send a special delegation, including Rosamund da Silva and Carlos Quivera, to Babel. When Babel is attacked by meteors, Rosamund dies, but a simulation of Rosamund lives on in Quivera's AI bodysuit, which saved his life. Quivera runs into a millipede named Uncle Vanya, the advisor to Babel's queen-mothers, who have all just died. He cannot escape because an army of Ziggurat millipedes surrounds the city, killing all the refugees. He begs Quivera to take a case containing Babel's library to Babel's sister-city Ur, so that their history is not destroyed. Quivera reluctantly agrees. In order to sneak out Uncle Vanya, Quivera castrates him and then rides him out of the city. Uncle Vanya tells Quivera that the millipedes' ancestors, the True People, came to Gehenna long ago and found that it was already occupied by First Inhabitants. The First Inhabitants welcomed the True People, but the True People eventually betrayed their hosts and killed them off. Since then, the True People have suffered constant war. Quivera insists that those stories are just myths. The next day, Quivera is attacked by a poisonous insect, and he goes into a coma for three days. Uncle Vanya and the suit help cure him. When Quivera wakes up, two Ziggurat millipedes attack them, but Quivera and Uncle Vanya fight them off. Uncle Vanya asks about the voice from Quivera's suit, and Quivera explains that he and Rosamund had a secret affair. On the last day of the journey, Uncle Vanya is badly burned. As he lays dying, he reveals to Quivera that the case doesn't hold a library. Instead, it contains 16 millipede eggs, which would allow Babel to rise again. Quivera returns to Europa, but Rosamund does not know if Quivera kept his word to deliver the eggs.