At last the summons goes out from High King Agamemnon for the great army to reassemble to attack the city of Troy. But after all the death and disaster of the first expedition, many of the kings don't want to try again. Meanwhile, Kalchas the Trojan seer pleads for the life of his daughter, and a wild and very smelly beggar threatens to kill Agamemnon's newborn son, Orestes, unless Agamemnon produces Achilles immediately.