The chapter recounts the backstory of Sir Palomides, a fourth-born prince of Baghdad in the caliph's royal precinct. As a young man, he frequented the suq al-warraqin, a paper-sellers' market, where he debated with friends Hassan, Tahir, and Ziyad. When they discussed wild rumors about the distant, barbarous land of Britain, Palomides—craving a heroic story to make his mark and escape his life of leisured irrelevance as a fourth son—impulsively declared he would travel there himself.

The journey took two years, by camel along the Silk Road through Mosul, Sivas, Ankara, to Constantinople, then by sea to Venice (where he adopted the name Palomides from a minor Trojan War figure), then through Milan, Cologne, and Bruges, finally sailing the Western Sea to Britain. He arrived intrigued by rumors of King Arthur, who had unified the warring British.

At Camelot, Palomides was disappointed: the famed Round Table, Rose Garden, menagerie, and library all paled beside Baghdad's splendors. Merlin, fluent in Arabic, greeted him as an envoy from the fictional Sarras, a misconception Palomides stopped trying to correct. He observed the court carefully for a planned book—noting Arthur's solar charisma and relentless energy, Bedivere's jealous devotion, Lancelot's dangerous skill, and Guinevere's intelligent, bored, and apparently infertile presence.

As summer waned, Palomides prepared to return home. He agreed to chaperone court ladies on a country picnic, where they gossiped about him in Latin, assuming he didn't understand. A newly arrived blond lady with an overbite—Isolde—defended him flirtatiously. Three armed brigands then accosted the women, demanding rent, jewelry, and rape. Palomides, eager to finally act as a hero, drew his Damascus-steel sword and killed two attackers with ease, sparing the third on condition he convert to Islam and pilgrimage to Mecca.

Returning to the panicked women, Palomides found Isolde the Beautiful (also called Isolde the Blonde) calmly standing. She detached a sleeve of her dress and offered it to him to clean his sword. In that instant, Palomides fell madly in love with her—an event that would clearly redirect his planned departure and the course of his life.