A nameless, dying narrator takes us back to his childhood home in a remote corner of the ubiquitous 'Empire'. The second of three sons, he lives there with his mother in a state of unrelieved poverty. Life eventually becomes so dire that the mother-who can only find work as a prostitute-is forced to sell one of her children. The oldest son, Nico, volunteers to be sold in order to protect his family, and that decision sets in motion everything that...