This is a short film based on the idea of an English-style department store as Dante's Circles of Hell, but incorporates other religions as well. All references are subtle, and may take repeated viewings, a good eye, and a strong literary background to fully understand. If given the opportunity, I would set it to music and make it a music video in the sense that one song occupies the entire piece entirely. The music I would choose is VNV Nation's "Epicentre" from their album, "Futureperfect". If the music is not to be used, it would be a silent film.

The film is bathed in orange tones, technically sepia, but not nearly as brown. The quality of the video should be dreamlike, as though between a dream and a nightmare.

A man walks through a revolving door. He finds himself in an English-style department store, such as Harrod's. It is lavishly decorated, but still dark and uninviting. The first floor he encounters has the toy department. There are many different kinds of toys, but they all are classic toys rather than new-fangled, battery operated toys. He comes across the stuffed animals first. He is at first amused, and then apprehensive of the stuffed animals and dolls he encounters, because they look new, but still somehow discarded. He then sees a child sized puppet theatre, and an unseen person is putting on a Punch and Judy show. There is a deep red wire bench placed in front of the theatre, so that people may view it easily. The man sits and watches the classic Punch and Judy ending, where Punch kills the Devil himself.

He rises and heads towards the escalators. At this point, he notices that oddly, there are no escalators leading up from where he is standing. Only ones that head down, as though the building has been built upside-down. He also notices that to the side, there is only blank floor, and not an upward bound escalator like would normally appear. He gets onto the down escalator, and as he descends, he notices a pregnant woman riding an upward escalator right next to him. He is confused how she could be riding an escalator when he did not notice a place for one to emerge, but continues downwards.

On the second floor, he encounters the lingere department. The walls seem to be painted with a stormy, lightning-plagued background, while the scantily clad mannequins pose throughout the department. He walks through these, and as he nears the end of the department, he finds a mannequin which is flanked by two male mannequins. She seems to be embracing one, and another looks on as jealously as mannequins can manage.

He moves again, briefly, to the escalator bank, where he sees a child with a vivid purple balloon riding the up escalator alone.

The third department is a grocery store, again, in the style of Harrod's. Entering the department, he notices the security guard with his hard stare that seems to notice nothing, and everything, all at the same time. There are tables set up so that patrons can purchase certain food items and consume them in the store. This area looks neglected. The trashcans are full, and quite a few fat patrons are eating rich pastries and other fattening foods. The man looks back over his shoulder when the overworked janitor appears to be the same man as the security guard. He shrugs it off at first, but it is harder to ignore when he passes the cashier, who also appears to be the same man as the janitor and guard.

He moves back toward the escalator banks, where he descends again. This time, a pregnant woman holding a child's hand is ascending. She turns and smiles at him, and rather than being as disconcerting as everything else he has seen, it is reassuring.

On the fourth level of the department store, he sees the jewelry department. There are many rich patrons here, and they are uniquely overdressed, complete with gaudy jewelry. A well-dressed saleswoman leans over the counter to hand an older, rich woman a very large diamond necklace. The patron takes it, and looks delighted.

As he decends again, he sees nobody rising on the escalator. Instead, on the wall of the escalator bank, right next to him, is a large indoor waterfall that looks like a curtain of falling water that goes the entire length of the space that he can see.

He turns the corner, to find that it has no shopping, and appears to be offices. Workers come and go, but none take notice of him. They are all dressed in drab colors, and clothing devoid of any personal style. He quickly leaves this area.

As he emerges onto the next department, he sees that it is the sporting good equipment. This department is almost empty. He walks through a wasteland of sporting equipment. He reaches the end of the department, and finds that there is nowhere to go, except for around a corner. He turns the corner and finds the security offices. There are various looking punks, and they are being forcibly dragged through the hallways. They fight against their arrest the whole length, and are punching and kicking at the guards. One of the guards makes a motion toward him, as if to tell him to leave the area.

He steps off the escalator to discover the makeup and perfume department. The employees interact with him the most of any of the floors, and they confront him, trying to spray him with samples, or talk to him about certain benefits of their products. He rushes to leave, and at one point, actually begins to run while looking behind him, but then immediately feels foolish and reverts to walking quickly.

As he leaves the escalator, he finds himself in the electronic goods. He is surrounded by teenagers, who are talking raucously. Some are waving their arms in obvious complaints. Some are teasing others by laughing, pointing, and taunting. And that's when he notices that some are starting to whisper and point at him.

Having reached his limit of these bizarre behaviors on each level, he runs toward the escalators. He does not see an upward bound escalator, and there are no more escalators leading downward. As a small group of the teens comes closer in an effort to provoke him, he decides to do something bold. He dashes up the down escalator. He makes it as far as the floor with the security offices before someone notices. A guard yells at him and begins to pursue him. He manages to outrun him, and makes it to the first floor. He runs off the escalator, but realizes he has nowhere to go. At this point, he sees a child emerge from the Punch and Judy theatre, and the little boy motions for the man to follow him. He leads the man to a door which the man had not previously noticed. As the door opens, the man sees the guard, but the guard sees that he has discovered the way out, and does not chase him any further. The door opens, but we are unable to see what is beyond it as the man walks through. He turns and holds the door for the child, but the child is not interested, and returns to his puppet theatre.