A set of three linked Greek tragedies dramatizes fate, moral responsibility, and the clash between private duty and public law. In the first play a revered leader's inquiry into a civic plague unravels a hidden past and reveals that he has unknowingly fulfilled a dire oracle, prompting family catastrophe and self-inflicted punishment. The second follows his years of wandering and the search for a final resting place, while the third centers on a woman's defiance of state edict to perform burial rites for a kin, provoking a tragic standoff with the ruler and fatal consequences for both families.