Rubia Maat’s world is full of prejudices and, even though she herself isn’t old, the world she represents is often found in elderly people. The name Rubia was borrowed from the plant Rubia tinctorum, also known as dyer’s madder, which was used as a dye in the past. In ancient Egyptian mythology, Maat was the goddess of truth, law, morality, and justice. So Rubia’s name symbolizes tinted truth.

Rubia Maat, the manager of a federal prison, is a conscientious and meticulous woman. She doesn’t leave anything to coincidence and her house (i.e., a prison) is very well-ordered at first glance. Nothing can come into it that could harm, injure, or damage it.

The manager doesn’t recognize Eros’ purity, but her Reason and Emotion trick her Instinct and allow Eros into her untouchable world. Here the reader again encounters the power of our minds, which can change the truth with ease, without having even the slightest doubt about their distorted perceptions. Even though Rubia’s most important mind (i.e., Instinct) protects her world to perfection, this is also precisely what makes it vulnerable because her subordinated minds, Emotion and Reason, yearn for companionship and love.

The prison has four wards for four groups of human characters. The first ward contains the worst criminals, or the men ruled by Emotion. The prisoners are connected with real people in Rubia Maat’s life through special code numbers. Only prisoner no. 452210 managed to escape from the prison. He was Rubia’s first, unrequited love—the boyfriend who left her. That was when she decided that no one would hurt her again and so she began looking for defects in all men, so she wouldn’t have to let them into her world. Thus every man is condemned in her world before he can even introduce himself to her. But not only the men who ask her out end up in her prison, but also her friends’ men. A special ward is dedicated to the women who confuse the minds of all the less intelligent representatives of the male sex.

Prisoner no. 746071 was accused of raping his wife. But what Rubia really sees here is a married couple that no longer feels true love, but merely resignation and an empty relationship. To make the connection between the prisoners and Rubia’s prejudices even more obvious, here Eros remembers his dreams, in which the giant mahogany hammer the manager uses in her judgments tries to kill him.

In Rubia Maat’s eyes, prisoner no. 827909 is a pedophile, but it turns out that he’s only an older man who has a considerably younger girlfriend.

The manager carefully guards her intimate world, which is typical of everyone ruled by Instinct. When Eros asks her about children and personal happiness, he seems insolent to her. Because he’s not happy with her answer, he sets off the alarm on purpose to see what will happen. But he’s startled by Rubia’s defense mechanism: humor. Laughter proves to be the path to her heart.

Prisoner no. 699195 is a man who lets his attentive wife spoil him, but to Rubia this means he shows contempt for his wife. She doesn’t allow that some people are perfectly happy with this kind of a relationship and so she’s convinced that the man killed the woman within his wife.

Prisoner no. 848248 cheats on his wife and his two daughters also suffer because of this, and so the manager considers him one of the worst possible criminals. What bothers her most is that he wants to hide his behavior from the family by buying them flowers and presents.

Prisoner no. 896236 is condemned for being jealous, even though this proves to be justified because his wife is unfaithful to him. However, Rubia condemns all jealous men because they’re nothing but overly domineering males to her.

Rubia Maat tells Eros about many men who have one thing in common: they don’t accept themselves. In her world the young men with nos. 807559 and 705424 represent people who hide their worlds behind a stage set of success. Prisoner no. 816839 uses his stage sets to fool not only other people, but himself as well because his stage sets turned the small part of his world that’s inacceptable in a society shaped according to Reasons’ values into its complete opposite. What this prisoner despises the most is the very people whose worlds are similar to his own and, in order to conceal his world even more, he publically ridicules these types of worlds.
The lunch on the table waiting for Eros comprises three cans, which suggests that Rubia’s world is somehow connected with Athina’s. A lunch served in cans certainly doesn’t belong in world of a generally conscientious and diligent Instinct such as Rubia Maat. The number of cans reveals that someone identified Eros’ character in the manager’s world because this person placed a can for each mind on the tray. When Eros walks to the control room, he finds Rubia chatting with the only other person who can be found in her world besides the two of them. It’s the manager’s most important mind, her shy Instinct. He hides as soon as Eros comes closer to him.

The control room in the middle of the prison illustrates Instinct’s cautiousness and his constantly being on the lookout. Of course he does this as subtly as possible, safely from behind his walls. Instincts are curious, but they find it difficult to open their houses and worlds or their sacred intimacy. Instincts who don’t accept themselves can even be mean. Their security systems tend to destroy anyone who could pose a potential threat to their worlds. Therefore such people often tease and gossip, and interpret other people’s words as criticism that they can’t tolerate.

Alcohol can strongly affect Instinct’s and Reason’s functioning, whereas Emotion can handle it much better. So it often seems that drunk people change their character because that’s when you get to know their Emotion. The old proverb claims that you can find truth in wine, but the real truth is that this is when Emotion speaks up—the mind who will readily reveal to you all the secrets of the world that Instinct and Reason are carefully hiding from you (the first more than the second). For a short while, alcohol opens up Rubia Maat’s highly protected world: with Emotion the sun shines through the ceiling.

The second ward includes a liar (no. 686327), a man who exploited people (no. 036234), a miser (no. 708127), a penny pincher (no. 790747), and an odd man who dresses up in women’s clothes (no. 085841). What they all have in common is that their behavior only hurts other people indirectly.

The third ward includes prisoners with the mildest penalties. These are people who don’t harm anyone, but are ridiculed by Rubia Maat. No. 894344 tries hard to be good at sex, but he doesn’t do a good job because he doesn’t know a woman’s psyche and body well. No. 957538 is totally dependent and attached to his mother; he’s a prisoner with Instinct. They way Rubia describes him also shows the humorous side to her mind, which is typical of the creative Instinct. No. 763509 is a computer specialist (Reason), and no. 349090 is a “monologue-guy” (Emotion). Here it becomes clear that none of the minds suit Rubia’s world. Even no. 077407 (the egotist), who’s none other than Olivier from the first world, only represents a narcissist in Rubia Maat’s prison and she doesn’t want to have anything to do with him.

It becomes clear that nobody can avoid condemnation in a world of prejudices when we see that even a clumsy man (no. 147895), Rubia’s favorite TV host (no. 198533), and men with various physical shortcomings are imprisoned here. Eros comes to realize that completely normal people are locked up in this prison. This realization is the final stone in the mosaic of Rubia’s world. Now Eros already knows that the fourth, female ward contains all the women who the manager despises.

All of these prisoners are only figments of Rubia’s imagination. Her world doesn’t reflect the truth of the worlds of others. She can’t see them, so she forms completely distorted ideas and judgments about them, which is why she closes herself off from other people in her own, highly-secured world without even being aware of it.

Rubia’s world proves to be her own prison. There’s no one in it but Rubia Maat. This is the price paid by anyone who’s not ready to risk even a little for love.