Nippur's adventures, loosely framed on actual history, start when he is a general and military leader of Lagash, who is forced to escape from Mesopotamia after its invasion, carried out by Lugal-Zage-Si. He then wanders around the bronze age known world, the Middle East and east Mediterranean, making friends and enemies, before taking part on the Akkadian conquest of the Fertile Crescent. Thus does Nippur become king of Lagash, but he chooses to abdicate and comes back to travel.