The Sirens of Titan

In the current time, people have discovered how to find "the meaning of life within [themselves]" (8). This was not necessarily true in the past, the narrator explains, forcing people to turn to religion instead. After decades of space travel in search of meaning, humanity realized that the only place left unexplored was the human soul. The narrator states that the following story is entirely true and took place in the Nightmare Ages between the end of World War II and the Third Great Depression.

A crowd of people waits for a man and his dog to materialize at the lavish Rumfoord Estate in Newport, Rhode Island. However, since this crowd has not been invited, they will not witness the event. They simply want to be nearby as they are obsessed with these so-called miracles. For the past nine years, a man and his dog have materialized in this place once every 59 days. Mrs. Beatrice Rumfoord has declined the requests of the world's "great men" (9) to be present at a materialization. Instead, she issues her own report on what happens and refuses to elaborate. The man who materializes is her husband, Winston Niles Rumfoord, and his dog, Kazak. According to Beatrice's reports, Rumfoord is able to see into the future and the past.

Malachi Constant is the richest man in the United States, even though he never graduated college. He has a reputation as a promiscuous, party-loving celebrity and he is now the first person to be invited to one of Rumfoord's materializations. Wearing a disguise, he is driven to the secure estate in a limousine. Beatrice is a wealthy, attractive woman. As well as inheriting her husband's fortune, she is a successful poet who wrote a collection titled Between Timid and Timbuktu. Years before, her husband built himself a spaceship and flew into a chrono-synclastic infundibulum positioned near Mars. Venturing into this uncharted space anomaly caused Rumfoord to become spread out across the galaxy, changing him and Kazak into "wave phenomena—apparently pulsing in a distorted spiral with its origin in the Sun and its terminal in Betelgeuse" (10). Once every 59 days, the Earth's orbit brings it into contact with this spiral and Rumfoord materializes on Earth. The chrono-synclastic infundibulum is a strange phenomenon which can be difficult for the human mind to comprehend. Inside the chrono-synclastic infundibulum, however, Rumfoord is able to see the way in which the universe's tangled threads of subjective truths are all woven together.

At the house, Constant steps out of the limousine and removes his disguise. He unlocks the door and enters, proceeding through the house following the complicated instructions written in his invitation. Though Beatrice is resistant to his presence, his invitation explains that Rumfoord himself "insisted" (11) that Constant should witness the materialization. He believes that he and Constant have become good friends during their time together on Saturn's moon Titan, though Constant believes that he has never left Earth.

Constant is running late. His name means faithful messenger and all he wants from life is "a single message that was sufficiently dignified and important to merit his carrying it humbly between two points" (12). The décor in the house makes him think of a "drug-induced" (13) hallucination but he is snapped out of his memory by the distant bark of a dog. Constant picks up his pace and eventually encounters the recently materialized Rumfoord. They make small talk. Rumfoord mentions Constant's reputation as the luckiest person in the world and Constant replies that "somebody up there" (13) likes him. Constant is struck by Rumfoord's apparent "unquestionable superiority" (14). He is not used to meeting people who simply seem better than him. Rumfoord reveals that he can read Constant's mind and, to make Constant feel better, he says that Constant is superior in terms of reproductive capabilities: Rumfoord admits that he cannot reproduce. They tour through the house. Rumfoord talks about Beatrice and his childhood. Rumfoord shows Constant a room full of "mortal remains" (15), including a human skeleton. He describes flying into the chrono-synclastic infundibulum and how it infused him with the knowledge that "everything that has ever been always will be, and everything that ever will be always has been" (16). This knowledge of the future can be quite dull, he explains. As an example, he says that he knows that, while on Mars, Constant and Beatrice will be forced to breed with one another like animals.

Constant, still reeling from Rumfoord's claims about the future, struggles to comprehend. Rumfoord goes into further details, mentioning that Constant will travel to Mars, Titan, Mercury, and then back to Earth. Constant actually owns a spacecraft named The Whale but it has been grounded since the government "indefinitely" (18) banned space travel. Despite this, Constant is insistent that he has no plans to travel to Titan. Rumfoord, bemused, talks about the fine climate and beautiful women who can be found on the moon. Constant brags that he sleeps with plenty of "beautiful women" (20) on Earth. When he tries to show Rumfoord a photograph of a beauty contest runner-up, he realizes that he is holding a photograph of "three women—one white, one gold, one brown" (21) on Titan who are much, much more attractive than any woman he has seen on Earth. Rumfoord continues to talk about Constant's future on Titan, where he will be joined by Beatrice and their son, Chrono. The boy, Rumfoord explains, will possess a piece of metal that turns out to be incredibly important.

Rumfoord begins to dematerialize. As he fades from view, he promises to see Constant on Titan. After, Constant talks to Beatrice. She claims that these materializations make her ill and she believes that her husband is "insane" (22). However, his predictions do seem to come true. Constant leaves, thinking about whether he should try to seduce Beatrice. He dons his disguise and returns to his limousine. He is driven through the angry, disappointed crowd who claim that they have "a right to know what's going on" (23).