In the beginning there was Fear. In the nineteen stories of Diamantis Axiotes, fear, in its various forms, dominates the lives of the heroes: soldiers of the border, economic migrants, homeless people, mentally ill, but also mature women experiencing the last spark of desire. Bound by suffocating social conditions, internal conflicts and dilemmas, as well as existential anxiety for the future, they are unable to break free from the nets of fear. Sometimes they seek escape, through memory, to the lost paradise of childhood ("The Pleasure of Baths") or resort to fairy tales, where the bonds are magically dissolved ("The Fairy Tale of Erzincan").

A central position is occupied in several stories by erotic desire: timid and hidden, sometimes fluid and guilty, in some cases traumatic, it is unleashed when the heroes manage to escape from everyday life; but mainly we see it erupting impetuously and unimpeded by any taboos in the surrealist narrative "The Spaciousness of a Dream".

With various techniques and narrative tools, a lively and expressive language, the author follows his heroes with tenderness, but also with subtle humor and irony, as they strive, although timid and cowardly, to claim the right to life and ultimately "be brave with a thousand fears".