This chapter explores international law in search of its hidden and not-so-hidden metaphors. Along the way, it discovers a world inhabited by states, where rules are picked when ripe, where trade keeps boats forever afloat on rising tides. But it also unveils a world in which voices are silenced, inequality ignored, and hands washed of responsibility. Part of a shared cognitive system, metaphors provide a language to describe the law’s operation, help international lawyers identify legal subjects and doctrinal categories, and provide normative justifications for the law. Exploring metaphors’ operation at these levels, this chapter describes how metaphors help construct a shared, tangible universe of legal meaning. But it also reveals how metaphors help hide international law’s dark side, blind international lawyers to alternative worlds, and prejudge legal outcomes. Metaphors, key, nearly invisible building blocks of the international law we know, become key also to its demolition, restoration, or remodelling.