Summary

In Chapter 1, the novel opens on an unnamed university. The protagonist, Philip Engstrand, is a professor and researcher there. He is in a relationship with Alice Coombs, a researcher in the physics department. When he goes to meet her in the physics department one evening, Alice excitedly tells him that Professor Soft of the physics department has successfully created what seems to be a pocket universe inside the lab. Philip joins the physicists in watching the invisible pocket dimension slowly develop. In Chapter 2, Philip explains to the reader that he is in the anthropology department and specializes in studying the social and professional dynamics of university faculty. Over the next few days, Alice continues to stay in the lab and observe the strange scientific phenomenon. In Chapter 3, the phenomenon has stabilized but is still invisible and rather incomprehensible. Philip begins to develop a sense...