The Naked Sun

The second novel in Isaac Asimov's Robot series is set in a far future where humanity is divided between the overcrowded, underground Cities of Earth and the sparsely populated Outer Worlds colonized centuries earlier by Earth's descendants. The story follows Elijah Baley, a plainclothesman (detective) in the New York City Police Force, as he is sent across the Galaxy to solve a murder on one of the strangest worlds in existence.

Baley is summoned to Washington and informed by Under-Secretary Albert Minnim that he has been reassigned to Solaria, one of the 50 Outer Worlds. Even the plane trip triggers Baley's deep agoraphobia, a condition shared by all Earthmen, who live entirely underground and dread open spaces. Solaria has requested Baley by name, based on his success investigating a Spacer murder near New York in the events of The Caves of Steel. Refusal would mean declassification, a devastating loss of social status, for Baley, his wife Jessie, and their son Bentley. Beyond the murder case, Minnim reveals a covert secondary mission: Baley is to observe Solaria and report back, since Earth's sociologists have concluded that the planet faces virtual destruction within a century, outmatched by the robot-dependent Outer Worlds. No Earthman has ever set foot on an Outer World to gather intelligence about possible Spacer weaknesses.

Upon landing, Baley is unexpectedly reunited with R. Daneel Olivaw, a humanoid robot from the planet Aurora who partnered with him previously. The "R." stands for "Robot," but Baley deduces that the Solarians have not been told Daneel's true nature. Dr. Han Fastolfe of Aurora, the oldest and strongest Outer World, recommended Baley and insisted Daneel be assigned as his partner. In the ground-car to their quarters, Baley is seized by a compulsion to experience the open. He tricks Daneel and orders the robotic driver to retract the car's roof, flooding himself with the harsh light of Solaria's sun before losing consciousness.

Baley and Daneel arrive at the estate of Hannis Gruer, the Head of Solarian Security. Solaria has only 20,000 human inhabitants spread across 30 million square miles, with approximately 200 million robots, a ratio of 10,000 robots per person. Solarians live entirely alone on vast estates, never meeting one another in person. All social interaction occurs through "viewing," a sophisticated holographic system that projects lifelike images but involves no physical presence. Gruer briefs Baley on the murder: The victim is Rikaine Delmarre, a foetologist (fetal engineer overseeing artificial gestation). The only possible suspect is his wife, Gladia Delmarre, since Solarians never permit anyone else into their personal presence, yet Gruer insists she could not have done it either and does not elaborate. Privately, Gruer reveals that Delmarre had uncovered evidence of a dangerous conspiracy, and he warns Baley to keep this from Daneel, as Aurora may be involved.

Baley interviews Gladia via viewing. She describes her marriage as emotionally distant and recounts the day of the murder: Delmarre retired to his laboratory, she heard him shout in fright approximately 15 minutes later, and she ran to find him dead with his skull crushed. She fell unconscious and was found by robots. Baley reads the official report and discovers a crucial omission: No murder weapon was found. An unidentified robot was also at the scene, its positronic brain completely destroyed. Evidence has already been lost through Solarian routine, as robots cleaned the scene and prepared the body for cremation.

Moments later, Gruer is poisoned before Baley's eyes during a viewing session. He survives because the dose was too large and he vomited most of it. Gruer's chief aide, Corwin Attlebish, dismisses the poisoning and orders Baley home, but Baley refuses by invoking Daneel's status as an Auroran representative and threatening diplomatic consequences.

Baley outmaneuvers Daneel's protective restrictions and sets out independently, visiting the sociologist Anselmo Quemot, who explains Solaria's history. Quemot views the positronic robot as an irresistible social force driving civilizations toward ever-higher robot-to-human ratios and ever-greater isolation. At the Delmarre baby farm, where all Solarian children are raised from conception through adolescence in complete separation from their parents, Baley meets Klorissa Cantoro, Delmarre's assistant. She explains that Delmarre was working with the roboticist Jothan Leebig on experimental robots capable of disciplining children, a project requiring a weakening of the First Law of Robotics, which prohibits robots from harming humans. While outdoors, Baley narrowly survives a poisoned-arrow assassination attempt orchestrated through robotic manipulation: An unknown party planted false information in a robot's memory, causing it to hand a poisoned arrow to a child archer and identify Baley as an inferior human who should not be on Solaria.

Baley presses Leebig on whether robots can be made instruments of murder. He explains a crucial qualifier: The First Law applies only to what a robot knows will cause harm. Two robots can be independently given innocent instructions that, combined, produce murder. Leebig also reveals that Gladia frequently quarrelled with her husband and "hated him," providing the first clear motive. At a personal meeting with Gladia, Baley confirms his hypothesis that she possesses an unusual tolerance for physical proximity. She confesses that she was quarrelling with Delmarre on the day of his death, screamed at him, and then remembers nothing until she found him dead.

That night, Baley tears a curtain from a window and stares into the darkness, no longer driven by bravado but by a genuine desire to face the open. Recalling the grey cube in Gladia's portrait of him, which represented his imprisonment, he suddenly realizes the complete solution.

Baley arranges a group viewing conference with all key figures and builds his case against Leebig. He reveals the crucial insight: The murder weapon was the robot itself, specifically a detachable limb from the experimental robot Delmarre was testing. Someone said "Give me your arm," the robot complied by detaching its limb, and that limb was used to crush Delmarre's skull, then was snapped back into place. This explains both the missing weapon and the robot's total destruction, since it had its own arm used as the instrument of death, a devastating First Law violation. Leebig, as Solaria's foremost roboticist, alone had the skill to manipulate robots into performing indirect murder. Baley also reveals Leebig's deeper project: building spaceships with positronic brains that could wage war without human crews, making Solaria militarily invincible.

When Daneel approaches Leebig's estate to arrest him, Leebig, who would rather die than endure personal presence, confesses to everything and swallows poison. Baley privately acknowledges what he withheld at the conference: The actual blow was struck by Gladia, Leebig's unwitting instrument. Leebig arranged for the robot to hand her its detached limb during one of her violent quarrels with Delmarre, triggering a blackout during which she struck the fatal blow without conscious intent. She was as much a tool as the robot itself. In a farewell meeting, Gladia, preparing to emigrate to Aurora, asks permission to touch Baley and briefly places her trembling fingertips against his cheek.

Back on Earth, Baley reports to Minnim, who is jubilant that Solaria's stagnation suggests the Outer Worlds are decaying. Baley challenges this reading, arguing that Earth itself resembles "Solaria inside out," with both societies retreating from the open. Earth's salvation lies not in waiting for the Spacers to weaken but in overcoming the fear of open spaces and colonizing new worlds. Riding the Expressway homeward, Baley finds the underground City that was once his comfort now feels confining. He thinks of future generations standing on empty worlds and, though he still fears the open, no longer fears the fear itself. Surrounded by artificial lights, he lifts his head and sees through all the steel and concrete above him to the beacon that calls mankind outward: the naked sun. The story continues in The Robots of Dawn, the third novel in the series.