The story described in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel “The Sirens of Titan” takes place in the near future, when the first private spaceship has just appeared. Its owner is the wealthy Winston Rumfoord.
He flies into space with his dog Kazak, not afraid of ending up in one of the “chronosynclastic infundibulums”—a point in space where any object dematerializes and exists as a “wave phenomenon, pulsing along an improper spiral that begins at the Sun and ends near the star Betelgeuse.” That’s where he ends up.
Once every 59 days, when Earth passes through this spiral, Rumfoord and his dog materialize on Earth’s surface for exactly one hour.
During one of these materializations, another billionaire—Malachi Constant—comes to see Rumfoord at Rumfoord’s own request.
Malachi Constant was lucky by birth. He was born a billionaire and lived as a billionaire, even though he didn’t move a finger for his financial well-being.
In their conversation, Rumfoord tells Constant that by getting into the chronosynclastic infundibulum he was able to see the Truth—whether it was the past, the future, or even the thoughts of his counterpart. In that conversation, Constant learns what he personally will have to do—that it is his inevitable fate.
And, according to Rumfoord, he must go—with Rumfoord’s wife—to Mars, become the father of her son Chrono, return to Earth, and then travel to Saturn’s moon Titan…