Twenty-three years have passed since the death of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. During this time, in the oldest state—proud of its gigantic tower, the temple of Marduk, and the astonishing gardens of Semiramis—several fearsome kings replaced one another, until power ended up in the hands of the capricious and not very bright Belshazzar and his co-ruler Nabonidus.
But one day, in the midst of carefree and sacrilegious revelry, four mysterious words appeared on the walls of the royal banquet hall—“Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin!”—and the great Babylonian state, which considered itself the center of all creation, shuddered.