The City of Children

Krank's dream-extracting device siphons the dreams of sleeping children. A cyborg cult called the Cyclops abducts them from a nearby port city and ferries them to Krank's oil rig lair. Among the kidnapped is Denrée, the adopted little brother of One, whose fate becomes the spark that drives much of the story.

The Octopus, a gang of conjoined twins who run the carnival underworld, hires One to steal a safe. The plan unravels when One glimpses Denrée's abductors and loses track of the safe in the harbor. He and a girl named Miette trail the Cyclops to their headquarters but are captured and sentenced to death.

The Octopus orders Marcello to bring One back, and he uses trained fleas to incite paranoia and violence among the Cyclops guards. In the chaos, Marcello rescues One while Miette appears to drown in the harbor, only to be saved later by an amnesiac diver living beneath the waves.

Miette surfaces alive and, with Marcello's help, aids One in escaping from the harbor and hiding in a bar. The Octopus presses the pursuit, and the fleas are unleashed again on the pier, threatening to turn One against Miette.

The Octopus confronts One and Miette on the pier, releasing the fleas to drive One toward violence against Miette. A tear from Miette triggers a chain of events that ends with a ship slamming into the pier. Marcello intervenes, dispersing the fleas on the Octopus and allowing One and Miette to press on with their mission to find Denrée.

Back on Krank's oil rig, Irvin engineers a delayed whisper for help through a bottled dream released by one of the clones. The message reaches One, Miette, and the diver, who uncovers his identity as the scientist who created them. Together they vow to end Krank's reign and reclaim the rig.

During the rig operation, the diver aims to exploit iron as a weakness, bringing Martha to a near-fatal moment. In a desperate turn, Martha is harpooned to death, marking a brutal blow to the resistance against Krank.

Miette steps into Krank's dream-extracting machine, confronting the mastermind within his own mental fortress. Krank fights to maintain control, but Miette uses her imagination to bend the dream into an infinite loop. The dream's power begins to fracture Krank from the inside.

The dream loop destabilizes Krank, allowing One and Miette to rescue all the children, including Denrée. The diver seizes the moment to end Krank's menace by initiating a rig-wide destruction.

The diver straps himself to a blasting mechanism and detonates the charges, sacrificing himself to ensure the rig's collapse. A seabird landing on the blasting handle triggers the final explosion, snuffing out Krank's powers once and for all.

In the wake of the catastrophe, the rescued children are reunited with One, Miette, and Denrée. The sea reclaims the rig, but the bond among the trio endures, offering a hard-won hope for a future free from Krank's dream-stealing nightmare.