In an unspecified time and place, an unnamed political prisoner is marching when he realizes that he can slip out of his handcuffs. The man used to be a chef, but he was taken by the government because he used to serve revolutionaries at his old restaurant. The former chef runs off, bumping into a professor who the guards then take when they realize that they’re missing a man. After the chain of prisoners has marched off, the man puts on the professor’s clothes and takes his briefcase. He decides to assume the man’s life. For years, he lives as the professor of physics. He writes to old friends to get money, sends letters to the professor’s relatives explaining that he needed to flee the country, and takes on a lover. However, the money starts to slow down and his grasp on his real identity dwindles. On his way to his mailbox one day, he runs into the professor’s widow who, confused, flees from him. The man is worried but not desperate: he’s convinced that, if he works hard enough, he can convince anyone that he is who he says he is.