Kuno calls Vashti and begs her to travel across the world to visit him in person.

Alone in her room, Vashti kisses her Book three times and murmurs prayers to the Machine.

Kuno refuses to speak to his mother through the Machine unless she makes the journey to visit him.

Steeling herself, Vashti calls a car and boards an airship to travel to Kuno's side of the world.

Vashti arrives at Kuno's room on the other side of the world; they do not touch.

Kuno reveals that the Central Committee has threatened him with Homelessness, a death sentence.

Kuno confesses he illegally traveled to the earth's surface without a permit.

The Mending Apparatus, described as a white worm, drags Kuno underground and knocks him unconscious.

Vashti leaves Kuno's room, murmuring that his defiance will end in Homelessness.

The Machine eliminates all respirators, making any travel to the earth's surface impossible.

Kuno contacts Vashti after years of silence and warns her that the Machine is breaking down.

The Machine's communication system suddenly cuts out, and the abrupt silence kills thousands of people.

Vashti opens her door and finds masses of panicking, dying people in the tunnels outside.

Vashti goes to Kuno as he dies; he kisses her and confirms that people on the surface are waiting.

A crashing airship illuminates the platform for a moment before Vashti, Kuno, and those around them are killed.

The story begins with Kuno urgently calling his mother Vashti and begging her to travel across the world to visit him in person. Though deeply reluctant, Vashti makes the journey and arrives at Kuno's room, where he confesses he has illegally visited the earth's surface and been dragged back by the Machine's Mending Apparatus. Despite Vashti's warnings that his defiance will lead to Homelessness, Kuno refuses to be silenced, and the two part ways. Years later, as the Machine's systems begin to fail, Kuno's prophecy proves true and the communication network collapses, killing thousands from the shock of sudden silence. In the final moments, Vashti finds Kuno dying, and the two share a rare human connection before a crashing airship kills them both.

The headline events of Vashti and Kuno's story, from first contact to final collapse.

Vashti is interrupted while preparing for a lecture by Kuno's incoming call, which she answers impatiently.

Kuno tells his mother he noticed the constellation Orion while traveling in an airship.

A traveler drops his Book on the airship platform and boards without retrieving it, helpless without the Machine.

The airship attendant closes all the window blinds and switches on artificial lighting inside the cabin.

Vashti spots a gap in the lowered blinds through which a single star is visible.

Rising sunlight wakes Vashti during the airship journey, irritating her deeply.

Kuno explains that physically strong babies are euthanized because the Machine's sedentary society cannot accommodate them.

Kuno's application to become a father is rejected by the Central Committee.

Kuno walks through underground railway tunnels, imagining the voices of long-dead workmen who built them.

Kuno discovers that ventilation shafts built during underground construction still connect to the earth's surface.

Kuno exercises deliberately over time to build up his physical strength for a second surface attempt.

The reverence people hold for the Machine formally becomes mandatory worship, with refusal punishable by Homelessness.

Vashti and a friend notice strange gasping sounds distorting the Machine's musical broadcasts.

The Machine's water supply begins to smell bad and the buttons that summon beds stop working.

People across the underground panic and pray to their Books as the air quality continues to worsen.

From the opening scene, small details expose how completely the Machine has reshaped human behavior — Vashti is impatient about a lecture, a traveler cannot pick up a dropped book, and the airship attendant mechanically dims every window. During Kuno's confession in Part Two, he reveals that the society culls its strongest children and that his own application to become a father has been denied. He describes his methodical preparation for his illegal surface journey, from imagining the voices of dead workmen to discovering old ventilation shafts and deliberately building his physical strength. In Part Three, the Machine's decline registers first in small domestic failures — distorted music, bad-smelling water, unresponsive buttons — before escalating into widespread panic and open prayer. These background details trace how a civilization dependent on a single system grows fragile, then finally shatters.

The everyday details and background events that reveal how the Machine shaped and eroded human life.

Kuno tells his mother he longs to visit the earth's surface to see the stars, alarming her.

The Machine's medical arm descends from Vashti's ceiling to check her vitals after Kuno secretly contacts her doctor.

The airship attendant catches Vashti when she stumbles, horrifying Vashti with the unwanted physical contact.

The airship attendant shows Vashti the Himalayan mountains through the window and calls them the Roof of the World.

Kuno accuses Vashti of worshipping the Machine; she furiously insists she is simply most advanced.

Kuno declares that man is the measure, explaining that the body is the basis for understanding space and distance.

Kuno finds loose tiles in an underground tunnel and tears them away, revealing a shaft leading upward.

Kuno leaps for the shaft seal covering the surface exit, risking his life to reach it.

Kuno breaks through to the surface, loses his respirator in a blast of air, and breathes outside for the first time.

Just before losing consciousness, Kuno witnesses the Mending Apparatus stab a woman on the surface through the throat.

The last engineers who understood the entire Machine die off, leaving only specialists who know small parts of it.

The famous lecturer who championed secondhand knowledge tells the people to trust the Machine and wait patiently.

The Central Committee claims that enemies of the Machine have sabotaged it to explain the system's failures.

Euthanasia services stop functioning and people begin experiencing physical pain for the first time in years.

Kuno tells Vashti he has seen, spoken to, and loved the people living on the earth's surface.

The pivotal moments begin when Kuno reveals his longing to reach the surface, and the Machine's medical arm intrudes on Vashti's life uninvited, hinting at the total control that surrounds her. On the airship, Vashti's horrified reaction to an attendant's touch and her dismissal of the Himalayas reveal how thoroughly the Machine has severed humans from the physical world. In Kuno's room, his accusation that Vashti worships the Machine and his declaration that man is the measure mark the story's philosophical turning point, before his account of tearing through tiles, leaping for the shaft seal, and breathing outside air becomes its most dramatic physical sequence. Kuno's glimpse of the Mending Apparatus killing a woman on the surface reveals the Machine's willingness to destroy in order to preserve itself. In Part Three, institutional denial — propaganda from a lecturer, false explanations from the Committee, the withdrawal of Euthanasia — delays recognition of total collapse until Kuno's dying words confirm that life beyond the Machine has survived.

The key discoveries, confrontations, and decisions that shifted the story's direction at every stage.