A mother's deep love for her expatriate son, Giorgis, and her grief and sorrow for the inexplicable murder of her other son, Christakis, is vividly illustrated in the short story by Georgios Vizyinos.
The return of the expatriate somewhat relieves her pain but doesn’t alleviate her grief. She adjures, therefore, Giorgis and her other son, Michailos, to search for their brother's murderer and avenge him.
She is ignorant, of course, of who her son's murderer is and anxiously searches for him, while her Turk protégé, Kiamilis, whom she had taken care of if he were her child, after a dramatic adventure, although not knowing that he is the one who has -unwittingly- killed the son of his benefactress. A shocking revelation with dramatic consequences, when it comes to light. Kiamilis loses his senses and begs Giorgis not to tell his mother. To atone for his sin, having ultimately gone insane, he devotes himself to working for the mother, who never hears the truth.

The mother of Giorgis feels great joy when she goes to meet him in the City. His return from abroad somewhat softened her sorrow over the mysterious murder of her other son, Christakis, but it could not erase her desire for revenge. It was the eve of the Epiphany when Charalambis, a childhood friend of Christakis, comes to their house in a village in Eastern Thrace and offers him a job as a postman. It was a job that he himself had done but planned to leave. The mother is against it because she does not like Charalambis.

However, Christakis insists on accepting the job, as he is fascinated by the idea of traveling and adventure. As if it were a twist of fate, on the very first day he starts, while going to the train station to pick up the mail – a busy day because the Patriarch was arriving – he is found murdered. His mother does everything she can to ensure justice is served, but all her efforts to find and punish the murderer prove fruitless.

At the hotel, where she meets Giorgis, a Turkish woman arrives with her son, Kiamil. The mother, upon seeing Kiamil, falls into his arms, treating him as though he were her beloved son. The other child of the Turkish woman is an investigator, one of the best. He offers to help. The Turkish woman insists on hosting the mother and her two children at her large house for as long as the search for the murderer continues. Giorgis is initially cautious, but when Michailos, his brother, tells the story of Kiamil, he agrees to everything. Kiamil had been treated by their mother for several months after a dramatic ordeal. No one can imagine Kiamil’s connection to the murder of Christakis.