After the ten-year-long Trojan war and another span of the king's absence where he was presumed dead, Odysseus's kingdom was swirling with rumors of the royal couple's behavior. They had not seen or not heard from each other for too long. Odysseus and Penelope were portraying a happy-at-last couple to the public some subscribed to and others believed was fake. Odysseus returned so many years after the rest of the soldiers, and no one would say why! Penelope had hosted 108 potential suitors during her husband's absence. These facts did not add up to a happy marriage in a few people's eyes.

Petros, a shopkeeper, not far from the royal palace, wanted to know more. He was sure that Odysseus was not actually Odysseus. This scandal would end their island's way of life. They were already in a precarious situation, broke from a long, expensive war with the Trojans and unfriendly with their allies like the Spartans because of the debts. He thought the queen should have assumed her husband was dead like the rest of the world and remarried so the island would have more long-term stability. The likelihood he would come back after so long was so small.

Ithaca's relations and its trades affected his shop and his livelihood. He wanted the best for the kingdom and the best for himself. Petros' livelihood depended on free trade with other countries and he desperately needed it to continue. The last possible outcome of the situation he wanted was a political revolution and for his government to become a democracy like some young radicals had started to propose as a solution to inherited monarchies. He would rather have a new morally reprehensible king because that would bring less change, but the best solution was neither. The best solution would have been Penelope believing her husband was dead like everyone else and moving with a man the kingdom could trust.

The pretender or rival would bring their way of life doom. He did not know who the new king was, but he suspected he was a Spartan, upset over a disagreement during the war. While Greece won, the war devastated them and the length of time the men spent fighting created tension between the different kingdoms. Also, Penelope was beautiful and he was probably trying to use her. She was a perfect queen, so why would others not try for her hand? The royal family had accepted him back, but only after he told a story about making the marriage bed. It is customary for Ithacan men to make the couples bed, so Petros was not convinced.

However, most people were rejoicing the king was back and did not want to listen to his conspiracy theories and gossip. They hated all of Penelope's possible suitors, and were thankful for the chaos to cease. The suitors would throw rowdy parties and get drunk, breaking everything in the streets. They were incredibly disruptive to the citizen of Ithaca. Four of them once chased Petros's wife home from her mother house. Whether the king was actually Odysseus or not, most of the population was believed Penelope was happy and believed the new man was Odysseus because she accepted him into her home.

Greece often traded with the Indian Kingdoms. This fact finally provided Petros this audience and friend to listen to the theories he had created about the royal family. One day while Petros was tending to his shelves, he was muttering his discontent about the king when an Indian merchant named Virji began to listen to his rants and asked him, "What did your king do?" He was curious because back home, his king had also led a scandalous life. He listened intently to a detailed history of Ithaca's past twenty years from Petros' perspective.

Petros was elated with happiness that he had an audience. The last time he discussed his theories was with a young woman named Iris who was shopping at his store. He went on his typical rant while she sat and listened patiently. When he finally ran out of tangents to explore, Iris asked why he did not think higher of Penelope. When he did understand, she pointed out that while he thought of Penelope with incredible esteem, he forgot the strategies she deployed a plan to delay a marriage to the suitors. She put off choosing a suitor for three years by weaving a burial shroud for Odysseus's father and untying a part every night, so she would never finish and never have to choose. A woman that smart would not forget all her efforts on a man she did not believe was truly Odysseus. Petros did not like how he was made a fool by Iris's points, so he was excited his new audience was not from Ithaca.