The anonymous speaker of this quasi-historical report on the Great Wall of China speculates not only about the peculiar method of the wall’s construction but also about the motives behind the project and the authorities on whose decision it was undertaken. The speaker’s focus gradually expands to consider the larger matters of relationship between the emperor and his people, between the empire and the barbarians beyond it, and, ultimately, between the real and the imagined meanings of all these various shapers of the speaker’s world.