Incensed by the reawakened independence of his wife, the Protector murders the Boy and forces Agnès unwittingly to eat his heart.

[4] Part I The chorus takes us back to 800 years ago, when books were "written on skin," and introduces the protagonists: the Protector (a wealthy landowner) "addicted to purity and violence" and Agnès, his wife, his "property."

The Protector asks the Boy to create a book celebrating his life, showing his enemies in Hell and his family in Paradise.

Agnès distrusts the Boy and is skeptical of the creation of images picturing their lives, but her objections are overruled by the Protector.

When the Boy shows a picture of Eve, Agnès laughs and challenges him to make an image of a real woman, one that he could want sexually.

Marie is skeptical of the idea of writing a book and questions why the Boy is treated like a member of the family.

This arouses the Protector's anger: he defends the Boy and his book, and threatens to forbid Marie and John from entering his property.

Part II The Protector dreams that his people are rebelling against the book, and that there are rumors of a secret page where Agnès is shown gripping the Boy in bed.

The Protect wakes up from the dream and reaches for Agnès, who is standing by the window watching the Protector's men burn villages.

Part III The Boy shows the Protector and Agnès some pages from the manuscript, including images of atrocities.

The Angels describe the cruelty of a God who creates man with conflicting desires, making him "ashamed to be human."

[1] In a 2019 poll by The Guardian, the opera was ranked the second-greatest classical composition of the 21st century, with Erica Jeal lauding the score as "tense, precise and often glowingly beautiful".