Lilliput and its rival Blefuscu have been at war for generations over a seemingly trivial matter: which end of an egg should be cracked first.

Gulliver, caught between two absurd factions, discovers that the smallest conflicts often hide the deepest hatreds. Blefuscu has been harboring Lilliputian refugees — specifically, those who crack their eggs at the small end, as the High Church of Lilliput mandates.

"The Big-Endians are heretics," the Emperor of Lilliput explains, seriously.

Gulliver proposes a compromise: let people crack eggs however they wish. The Emperor's face goes white with rage.

"Liberty is the enemy of order," he says. "And order is the foundation of empire."

Gulliver begins to understand that empires — even miniature ones, even toy ones — operate by the same logic as their full-sized counterparts: the powerful define reality, and deviation is always heresy.

He escapes by wading across the channel. The water barely reaches his knees. But he is terrified all the same.