The work is a large monologue, without particular scenic action, and essentially constitutes an elegy on the concept of time and the utopia of poetic sensitivity. The dominant theme in this is cannibalism. Old lady Venampl maintains carnivorous plants in her garden that feed on insects. Lady Venampl and her son, Sebastian, take a special trip to the Enchanted Islands to see birds attacking and devouring newborn sea turtles. In the end, Catherine Holly becomes an eyewitness to Sebastian's violent death at the hands of hungry children from Mexico, who attack and dismember him.