A defect in his cryogenic sleep chamber causes space pilot Ijon Tichy to wake up as an old man aged by 30 years. Tichy worries about the return flight, another 30 years - he won't survive.
A rather minor incident has rather major consequences when Tichy gets caught in a time loop. The defect in the control module is impossible for Tichy alone to fix, so it's good that he has now company from Tuesday's and Wednesday's Tichy.
Christmas in space - and the rocket is full of dirt and waste. Tichy finds a device in the garbage that teleports him to a congress of various space races. There he is to make a plea for the admission of humans. Tichy does his best.
Tichy and his Halluzinelle have the best possible chance of winning the robotics competition on the planet Prozytien. But he didn't think about his stubborn assistant.
In the constellation of drought, Tichy drinks gallons of water against the heat. When the doorbell of the rocket rings, two disciples of the guru Elron Petri are at the door and turn Mel into a follower of their water cult.
On its way to the planet Eggman, the rocket is just passing through the cosmic nebula "Nebulus Cognitionis" when the Halluzinelle asks Tichy for his date of birth. Unfortunately, he suddenly can no longer remember.
Tichy wants to pass off Prof. Tarantoga's invention 'Biste-Fix Time Bubbles' as his own at the prestigious inventors' congress 'Interstellarer Präfektus'.
Tichy wants to fly to the planet Eggman. The route passes the planet Prozytien, where Dr. Spamy has just been dumped by his wife Güva. Dr. Spamy steals the Halluzinelle.