This is an opera about a ruined childhood and the escape into an imaginary realm of fantasy.

In a small Swedish village, two boys are swapped at birth. For the adults in this pietistic community, swapping the children back restores the order "in keeping with God's plan." However, for the two boys, the unnamed frst-person narrator ("Ich") and Johannes, this moment marks the beginning of a search for a meaningful connection between events and the related experiences of loneliness, fear, love, and hope. In the course of this process, the boys' friendship is put to the test, as their differing perspectives on the events prevent a clear answer to the question of guilt and responsibility.

The main textual reference is Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. The main character of this novel is Captain Nemo, who has built a submarine and is on a quest for revenge against his family's enemies. Like Nemo, the two boys set up an (imaginary) library in the Nautilus, which becomes for them a place of knowledge and understanding, but also a retreat for writing and refection.