All his life Archibald Grimbane has had only one ambition.  That a Hero might ascend his Tower filled with traps, puzzles, monsters, and death to face him in a climatic duel to save the world.  The problem is that Grimbane isn't the only villain around and the Hero is busy, he's always having to go and save him from the desperate situations he gets himself into.  This is helped by Grimbane's crystal ball which is able to pick up on odd visions from some strange alternate reality.    The visions from the other world tell of their world as some kind of weekly story, an entirely predestined thing, that greatly offends Grimbane.  After one botched attempt to control the story Grimbane finds that staying out of the story's way gives him some greater amount of freedom.  He waits and watches having set aside his goal for now to upset this 'television show' and throw the whole plot aside.