[1] Renate suffered from a writer's block in the era she was invited to become writer-in-residence but accepted the challenge nonetheless[2] and used her protagonist as a storyteller of an imagined disaster threatening Almere.

Further on, her task gets renamed as town clerk, which was more fitting given the medieval circumstances Almere fell into.

The climate has become tropical and the days are equally long all year round and the twilight is correspondingly short.

Due to the loss of electricity and a lack of men, the standard of living falls back quickly.

The last group withdraws voluntarily in 'The Castle' and terrorizes from there to an increasingly lesser extent the population, which has largely withdrawn in Almere Centrum around the Weerwater.

Large themes for the survivors are growing food and making babies, which is almost hopeless with malnourished women.