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.

Giorgis’ mother is so happy, when she goes to meet him in Constantinople. The return of the expat softens somehow the mother’s sorrow for the unsolved murder of her other son, Christakis, but it does not eliminate her desire for revenge. It is the eve of the Epiphany when Charalampis, a childhood friend of Christakis, comes to their house, in a village in Eastern Thrace and proposes to him to take over his job as a postman. A job that he has been doing forever but he intends to leave. The mother is discouraged because she doesn't like Charalampis Christakis, however, insists on accepting the job, as he is fascinated by the trips and adventures. As if it were a game of fate, on the very first day he takes over and on his way to the railway station to receive the mail, during a day filled with traffic due to the Patriarch’s arrival, he gets murdered. His mother does everything to get justice done, but all her efforts to find and punish the murderer are fruitless.
At the hotel where the meeting with Giorgis takes place, a Turkish woman comes with her son, Kiamil. The mother, seeing Kiamil, falls into his arms and treats him as if he were her beloved son The other child of the Turkish woman is an investigator, one of the best. So he offers to help. The Turkish woman insists on hosting the mother and the two children in her big house for as long as the investigation for the murderer's discovery lasts. Giorgis is skeptical at first, but when Michailos, his brother, tells the story to Kiamil, he agrees with everything. Kiamil had been treated by the mother for a few months, after a dramatic adventure. No one can imagine Kiamil's relation with Christakis' murder.