A scene of magic incantation. Two powerful beings, Nebulous and Elena, look down on the misguided earth where a terrible ruler, Diktat, is coming into being. They call on gods and spirits to shroud the earth in darkness. On earth, two sycophants, Tousel Blond and Ginger Strumpet, honour the new ruler.

The tyrant Diktat reviews a parade of prisoners who have been arrested for climate activism. Nebulous and Scrofulous approach and warn Diktat not to ignore the suffering of the planet. Nebulous gives a graphic account of the polluted state of the earth. Angered, Diktat throws them into prison.

The prisoners sing of their despair and pray for an end to their torment, as a shrouded body is displayed. Diktat reveals the corpse to be Nebulous. Elena laments his death.

Diktat kills a wild boar in a ridiculous feat of machismo, and is lauded as a hero. Elena appears, still mourning the loss of Nebulous, and under duress joins Sceptic to flatter Diktat alongside his supporters.

Sceptic has persuaded Strumpet and Tousel to change sides. They bemoan the circle of empty flattery and lies which surround Diktat and his favoured supporters. Sceptic and Activist meet as conspirators. Sceptic calls for the winds to arise, the earth to shake, and the forces of nature to rise up against Diktat.

Diktat is suffering nightmares. In a state of confusion, he meets a Wolf and a Fox, who tell him that the trees are pleading for the cries of nature to be heard. Diktat claims that their talk of climate doom is a hoax. Sceptic, Activist and Elena invoke the dead to rise and hear the fall of the melting glaciers and see the earth tremble.

Increasingly desperate, Diktat seeks to know the future. He meets a Seer who warns him that all people, even kings, must submit to their destiny. Seer, Sceptic and Elena reveal to Diktat a vision in the form of a play, in which King Saul visits the fortune-telling Witch of Endor and learns that he will lose his kingdom.

Crushed by the vision, Diktat calls on God for mercy. As his power vanishes, he is destroyed, and Elena is revealed as the Queen of the Night. Light returns and the earth begins to heal.