Murungu and Atemi are some of the last people born in the Darwinian way, through sexual reproduction - in present time, the government creates 'installations' that come to the homes of prospective couples to be their sons. It is Murungu's great ambition to be one of those 'fathers' that sends their sons away to fight in the war, but this was nearly compromised in his youth when he made a foolish bet and lost the mortgage on his house. The government had rules against sending installations to people that did not have houses; Atemi found herself resenting her husband for the decision that had, for so long, cost them the opportunity to have sons like all their friends did. Finally, however, the couple receives a son. Their installation is named Stanislaw, and Atemi has great hopes for the boy. She cooks him a meal and waits for him to act the way that all the other sons do; Stanislaw, however, is different. He is a regenerated version of a lieutenant who already perished in the war, and the company engineered him in such a way that his instinct for war remains. As a result, however, Stanislaw finds himself unable to stomach the thought of killing. He spends his days sleeping and dreaming of the battlefield that he once died on, and the shape of dead bodies, even though these installations are meant to be perpetually awake. Atemi finds herself perturbed by his strange mannerisms - she feels the embarrassment of her neighbours' judgement, and pulls away from Murungu even more than before. At their wits' end, Atemi and Murungu finally contact the company. The vulnerability and emotion of their installation reminds them of their own weaknesses, and they try their best to explain what is wrong to the company representative, who is also an installation. The representative looks at Atemi and sees an Arabian girl that he killed while he was fighting in the war - he is privately shocked that the company could ever create such a being as Stanislaw, who is obviously programmed to have a conscience. Atemi feels regretful that she will lose Stanislaw, because she has begun to care for him, but when the company informs her that Stanislaw will be 'recalled,' she only subscribes to another parenting book and prepares herself to receive another installation.