The maw is an abyss amidst a sea full of ice. No one has ever jumped in and made it out alive. With the other corpses, the hero ties himself to a rope and tells them to lower him in. He drops inside to the void, and when the corpses pull the rope out eventually, they find it empty. Rumor has it that the hero is simply stuck there forever.

In the bar in the village of death, the storyteller drinks seawater with his friend as he recalls the story of the hero, how death is not the end of any story but rather the eternal continuation of it. Soon enough, an unfamiliar kid stumbles into the bar. The kid says he came out of the maw and saw the hero there.

Prior to his excursion into the maw, the hero goes back to the land of the living in order to get his lover. The mountain between the village of death and the living land tells him that he must bring his lover without ever looking back. He goes back to his old village in the living land, finds his lover, and takes him back to the village of the dead. However, he soon regrets his decision and urges his lover to return back to the living land.

The kid says that he jumped into the maw forever ago and has only now just returned. He says he met the hero there, who remains waiting inside. He and the corpses follow the kid out to the maw, but nothing happens. Soon enough, the corpses head back to the village of death. Alone, the storyteller and the kid talk. The kid says that the hero will eventually return.

Prior to his excursion to the living land, the hero wants to bring darkness to the village of death, which has always been bathed in eternal sun. Such light is tormenting for the dead, as it means that the day never seems to end. The hero travels to the mountains, and it tells him to dig. In the earth, he finds darkness and carries it to the maw where the other corpses gather around him. He tosses the darkness way up high, which temporarily covers the eternal sun, but it soon dissipates.

Back in the bar, the storyteller sees the kid return. The kid says he’s from the maw, and the storyteller asks him more about it. He says that the maw has night and day, and the hero constantly goes adventuring inside its depths. The storyteller remembers his mortal life, how he was a composer and pianist. He wonders if music exists in the maw like it does in the living land. The storyteller ventures out to the maw, where his friend is already standing. They talk about how the story of the hero is just that—a story.

Prior to his excursion to find darkness, the hero wants to recover a tale from the living land, which is known only to one corpse. He tries to get it out of her, but she says she wants a glass of wine in return. In the village of death, there is only seawater and no wine. Persistent, the hero gathers seawater and attempts to ferment it into wine. He gives her the fermented wine and finally gets the tale from the living land.

The storyteller reflects on how no time passes in the village of death. Sitting by the maw, he soon sees the kid again. He asks the kid how he got out of the maw, whether he will go back in. The kid shrugs.

At the start of his death, the hero bets that he can tell a story that will last eternity. It is the story of himself and the eternal story he wishes to tell. It infinitely recurs, being told through everyone beyond him. Just as he figures, it lasts for an eternity.

The storyteller tells the kid what he remembers about his mortal life as a musician. He thinks about how death was a gradual realization, that death truly is eternal and you may spend forever and ever telling the same story again and again. For now, he and the kid wait by the maw. The storyteller asks if he made up the whole story about the hero’s return. The kid says it must have been a good story, his.

Ultimately, the hero is just a normal person who died and was forced to wander death eternally. He is only a hero because the corpses decided him one. All through death, the corpses talk about his stories, lending him a sense of meaning in order to grant meaning to their own deaths. No one knows if he really existed, but no one cares nonetheless.

The kid apologizes for faking the story about the hero. However, the storyteller doesn’t care. A story is real because it is told. Together, the storyteller and the kid jump into the maw.