The audience seems to have passed from life into death, and find themselves at a reception for the freshly deceased. The Keeper of the Underworld likes to welcome the new intake with some entertainment, so he drags reluctant souls out of the darkness to sing. After each song the Keeper and his assistants sing their own short song of contempt for human foibles. As the humans yearn for the sweetness of life, the jaded Keepers contemplate torture as a better way of passing eternity.