Synopsis

As Kino walked along an abandoned railway line, he encountered a man who had been polishing the tracks for nearly fifty years. Pausing to rest, Kino told him a story of a land where people no longer needed to labor, yet willingly imposed upon themselves pointless and unsettling duties. The old man seemed to find it absurd, unaware that his own toil was equally futile; for Kino was soon to learn that two other men were working on the railroad, each negating the efforts of the last.