A narrator visits an elderly prince to report that he has identified a man called Siegfried, and uses the occasion to observe a region transformed by war: vanished neighborhoods, altered customs, and dislocated artisans. He reflects on memory and small personal episodes that resemble second lives, noting the uncanny recurrence of past moments. The royal household responds by turning contemporary terms into a fairy-tale register, while the prince laments the loss of once-guarded family and state secrets and considers how truth has become increasingly exposed.