After years of war, Ulysses finally returns to Ithaca. Rather than the joyous welcome he had hoped for, he finds his palace full of suitors, all scheming to possess his wife, and Penelope is wondering why it has taken him seven years to get home. Meanwhile Homer becomes increasingly irritated that they are not adhering to the plot of his new book, and the goddess Athena has had enough of irrational mortal behaviour.