"The cargo has priority," is what the passengers on board the nameless freighter, which sails around the world from Hamburg, are told. Why, asks the paying guest, who is also the narrating guest on the ship, would one undertake such a journey at all? Other questions are not so easily answered: Why does it seem that no one knows what is in the containers that the ship has loaded? Why does the restless captain insist on leaving the ship? And why does the cook only have a single cookbook for the many months ahead?.