Arriving in Iraq, strákur Karlsson is immediately sent on a mission with a US army unit whose leader is called the King of Hearts; he finds himself participating in the slaughter and rape of innocent Iraqis, and visits the Abu Ghraib prison. At the end of his tour of duty, he finds Scheherazade and she helps him to recover, telling him stories. Strákur Karlsson gives his passport to Scheherazade's brother to enable him to fulfil his dream of going to England to become a Shakespearian actor. Modelling their relationship on that of Peter Abelard and Héloïse d'Argenteuil, strákur Karlsson and Scheherazade have a daughter whom they call Astrolabe. Their marital bliss is destroyed one night when Scheherazade runs out of stories and strákur Karlsson's old army unit bursts in, killing Scheherazade and Astrolabe and arresting the protagonist. He escapes, flees into the desert, and wanders lost and suicidal.