Medieval Europe, during the Inquisition. The end of the XVI century. In Austria, Burgenland, a suburb of Vienna, there is the small town of Eseldorf (literally "donkey village" (a combination of the words German esel and German dorf)) (not existing in reality), which is almost completely subordinate to the chairman of the spiritual tribunal, is visited by a strange young man, introduced himself to the boys who met him, Philip Traum - a traveler and a magician. Later, Traumus confesses that he is Satan (or is also the nephew of Satan). The boys turned to him with requests, they were delighted with each new trick of the mysterious stranger, and, not fearing the consequences, they asked him to predict their fate. However, the predictions are not encouraging, the consequences are not what they wanted. Once again, the boys beg Traum to redo the future .