Summary: Stranger in a Strange Land

The inau­gur­al human expe­di­tion to Mars con­cludes mys­te­ri­ous­ly with the dis­ap­pear­ance of the crew. Twen­ty-five years lat­er, a sub­se­quent mis­sion unearths a human young­ster, Valen­tine Michael Smith, raised by Mar­tians. As a sequence of legal pro­ce­dures unfolds, Smith inher­its a mas­sive for­tune and lays claim to Mars itself, posi­tion­ing him as a con­se­quen­tial fig­ure in the pol­i­tics of Earth. Earth’s polit­i­cal leader, Joseph Dou­glas, takes cus­tody of Smith, detain­ing him in a med­ical facil­i­ty where he grad­u­al­ly adjusts to Earth’s atmos­phere and begins to under­stand its cus­toms and lan­guage, diver­gent from Mar­t­ian ide­ol­o­gy. Reporter Ben Cax­ton becomes sus­pi­cious of Douglas’s motives toward Smith, sus­pect­ing exploita­tion of the “Man from Mars” for per­son­al polit­i­cal gains, poten­tial­ly fatal. He per­suades his ally and for­mer lover, nurse Jill Board­man, to assist him in mon­i­tor­ing Smith’s con­di­tion. When Cax­ton attracts the gov­ern­men­t’s atten­tion, he is appre­hend­ed, prompt­ing Board­man to aid Smith’s escape from the hos­pi­tal through the uti­liza­tion of Smith’s innate psy­chic abil­i­ties. Seek­ing sanc­tu­ary with dis­tin­guished indi­vid­ual Jubal Har­shaw, they evade author­i­ties. At Har­shaw’s abode, Smith immers­es him­self in com­pre­hend­ing Earth’s tra­di­tions and faiths. Even­tu­al­ly, Har­shaw nego­ti­ates with Dou­glas to halt law enforce­ment inter­ven­tion and release Cax­ton. He also dimin­ish­es Smith’s polit­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance by assert­ing that legal­ly Mars can­not be owned by Smith as the Mar­t­ian civ­i­liza­tion pre­dates Smith’s exis­tence. Har­shaw con­vinces Dou­glas to super­vise Smith’s vast wealth, earn­ing an ally. Smith becomes cap­ti­vat­ed by reli­gion and, accom­pa­nied by Har­shaw and Board­man, vis­its a reli­gious group, the Fos­terites. The Fos­terites aim to exploit Smith’s new­found pres­tige for their ben­e­fit. A dis­agree­ment with the Fos­terites’ Supreme Bish­op ensues, result­ing in the Bish­op’s dis­ap­pear­ance at Smith’s hands. This event trig­gers a self-aware­ness in Smith, prompt­ing him to explore Earth’s soci­eties incog­ni­to. Smith and Board­man join a car­ni­val, show­cas­ing Smith’s pow­ers in a mag­ic act. Dur­ing their jour­ney, Smith com­pre­hends pre­vi­ous­ly elu­sive human con­cepts and estab­lish­es his own faith, the Church of All Worlds. Despite the church’s pros­per­i­ty and the cre­ation of a close-knit com­mu­ni­ty of fol­low­ers, Smith faces increased adver­si­ty. Har­shaw, regard­ing Smith as a son, is trou­bled by this and pro­vides solace to Smith among his fol­low­ers. Despite ques­tion­ing the effi­ca­cy of his efforts to aid human­i­ty, Smith remains stead­fast in his beliefs, ulti­mate­ly meet­ing mar­tyr­dom at the hands of an enraged mob. His adher­ents, includ­ing Har­shaw, per­pet­u­ate his lega­cy on Earth.

Chapter 1

The nar­ra­tive com­mences by delin­eat­ing the inau­gur­al voy­age to Mars. It is deter­mined that the most suit­able crew com­po­si­tion for this ardu­ous expe­di­tion would con­sist of four pairs of wed­ded indi­vid­u­als. An unat­tached male, aspir­ing to lead the mis­sion, invites a woman pos­sess­ing equiv­a­lent skills to wed him. These pairs, along with three addi­tion­al cou­ples, form the crew aboard the space­craft Envoy. Despite the Envoy reach­ing Mars, no sub­se­quent com­mu­ni­ca­tion is received.

Chapter 2

Twen­ty-five years lat­er, after World War III, the space­craft Cham­pi­on, helmed by Cap­tain Willem van Tromp, lands on Mars. The Cham­pi­on val­i­dates the pres­ence of native life on Mars and is a solo sur­vivor from the Envoy mission.

Chapter 3

Valen­tine Michael Smith, born to two Envoy crew mem­bers, is trans­port­ed to Earth and hos­pi­tal­ized for acclima­ti­za­tion. Van Tromp informs the Fed­er­a­tion High Coun­cil, Earth’s gov­ern­ing enti­ty, that although Smith is phys­i­cal­ly human, his men­tal­i­ty is more in sync with Mar­tians, a for­eign con­cept to Earth­lings. In the med­ical facil­i­ty, Smith engages in deep con­tem­pla­tion, sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduc­ing his bod­i­ly func­tions. This alarms the attend­ing physi­cian, fear­ing Smith’s crit­i­cal con­di­tion. Nev­er­the­less, Dr. Nel­son, Smith’s pri­ma­ry physi­cian, assures that such states are com­mon for Smith and pose no risks. On a par­tic­u­lar day, an atten­dant tries to per­suade Smith to relin­quish his life sto­ry’s film rights for a poten­tial movie enti­tled “I Was Incar­cer­at­ed on Mars.” Smith is puz­zled by this propo­si­tion, and the inter­ac­tion is inter­rupt­ed by a doc­tor’s entry.

Chapter 4

Gillian Board­man, a nurse cap­ti­vat­ed by Smith, dis­re­gards the pro­hi­bi­tion of female vis­i­tors by clan­des­tine­ly enter­ing his room under the pre­text of rou­tine nurs­ing duties. Mis­in­ter­pret­ing her ges­ture of offer­ing water as an invi­ta­tion to the Mar­t­ian cus­tom of “water-shar­ing,” fos­ter­ing spir­i­tu­al con­nec­tion, Smith grate­ful­ly accepts and encour­ages her to par­take as well. Intrigued by Gillian, Smith inquires about her fem­i­nin­i­ty. She play­ful­ly rebuffs his request for dis­rob­ing, leav­ing Smith per­plexed and hes­i­tant not to upset her due to his strug­gle to deci­pher her emo­tions. Gillian is invit­ed to dine by jour­nal­ist Ben Cax­ton, whom she has been engag­ing with roman­ti­cal­ly. To delve deep­er into Smith’s back­ground, Ben ques­tions her about their inter­ac­tion. Amused, he face­tious­ly pro­pos­es mar­riage. Ben sheds light on Smith’s legal enti­tle­ments; by law, Smith inher­its the wealth left by all Envoy crew mem­bers, sig­nif­i­cant in amount. Fur­ther­more, accord­ing to the Larkin Deci­sion, Smith tech­ni­cal­ly claims own­er­ship of Mars.

Chapter 5

Ben appre­hends author­i­ties con­ceal­ing Smith from pub­lic scruti­ny to exploit him for polit­i­cal gain. Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Dou­glas, Earth­’s de fac­to ruler, may hinge his polit­i­cal future on Smith’s coop­er­a­tion. Ben con­vinces Jill to covert­ly install a mon­i­tor­ing device in the hos­pi­tal to track Smith’s activ­i­ties, to which she agrees. The covert device records a con­ver­sa­tion between Smith and Dou­glas, with the Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al insist­ing on a con­fi­den­tial meet­ing, prompt­ing Dr. Nel­son’s res­ig­na­tion. Dou­glas attempts to coerce Smith into renounc­ing any legal claims to Mars by sign­ing a doc­u­ment. Smith, baf­fled, enters a trance-like state when pressed by Dou­glas to leave a thumbprint on the paper. After crit­i­ciz­ing Douglas’s gov­ern­ment in his pub­li­ca­tion, Ben fears sur­veil­lance at his res­i­dence, prompt­ing him and Jill to dine out. They pon­der the poten­tial polit­i­cal advan­tages Dou­glas could reap from Smith’s demise, with Jill anx­ious about Smith’s safety.

Chapter 6

Dur­ing din­ner, Ben and Jill wit­ness a “stereo tank” broad­cast when Dou­glas makes an appear­ance, deliv­er­ing a speech before his inter­ac­tion with the Mar­t­ian, Smith. Smith’s replies are artic­u­late and uncon­tro­ver­sial, lead­ing Ben to fear that Dou­glas is manip­u­lat­ing Smith’s words. Ini­tial­ly skep­ti­cal, Jill per­suades Ben that the Smith they see on screen dif­fers from the Smiths they encoun­tered at the hos­pi­tal. The real­iza­tion that the Dou­glas regime might jeop­ar­dize the real Smith under the guise of his altered pub­lic per­sona deeply con­cerns Ben. He deems it essen­tial to ensure Smith’s safe depar­ture from the hospital.

Chapter 7

Upon reach­ing the hos­pi­tal, Jill dis­cov­ers that Smith’s where­abouts have shift­ed. His pre­vi­ous room now hous­es an elder­ly uncon­scious lady. Ben enlists James Cavendish in his mis­sion to meet Smith, a pro­fes­sion­al rec­og­nized as a “Neu­tral Observ­er,” who offers impar­tial insights and main­tains an unbi­ased mind­set. Togeth­er with a legal advi­sor, they demand to see Smith at the hos­pi­tal. Gilbert Berquist, a mem­ber of Dou­glas’s staff, tries to impede Ben.

How­ev­er, upon Ben voic­ing his doubts regard­ing the fab­ri­cat­ed Smith inter­view, Berquist arranges a meet­ing with Smith. Inside Smith’s hos­pi­tal cham­ber, Ben pos­es a per­plex­ing query that leaves Smith puz­zled, hint­ing at the pos­si­bil­i­ty of his being a fraud. Sub­se­quent­ly, Ben and his group are forcibly eject­ed from the premis­es. As they depart, Cavendish sug­gests to Ben that he could have exam­ined the so-called “Smith” for cal­lus­es from Earth­’s grav­i­ty and footwear clues. Bound by the code of a Neu­tral Observ­er, Cavendish could not inter­vene while inside the room. Ben feels regret for miss­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty to val­i­date his sus­pi­cions of Smith’s imper­son­ation. While head­ing back, Ben’s autonomous fly­ing cab dis­obeys his com­mands, lead­ing him to a court­yard where he grad­u­al­ly los­es consciousness.

Chapter 8

Jill, serv­ing as a nurse, retrieves a motor­ized bed from Smith’s for­mer abode. The attend­ing physi­cian, engrossed in mon­i­tor­ing a sick lady on a screen, momen­tar­i­ly del­e­gates author­i­ty to Jill. She ven­tures into the lady’s cham­ber, only to dis­cov­er Smith, real­iz­ing the lady is a decoy to con­ceal Smith’s pres­ence. Delight­ed to reunite with Jill from their past “water-shar­ing” encoun­ters, Smith is cau­tioned by her not to dis­close her exis­tence. Sub­se­quent­ly, she attires Smith in a nurse’s out­fit as a dis­guise, and they abscond from the hos­pi­tal. Dur­ing their cab ride, Smith expounds on Mar­t­ian con­cepts that resist smooth trans­la­tion to Earth. Antic­i­pat­ing pur­suit, Jill instructs the cab to trans­port them to Ben’s res­i­dence. At Ben’s home, Jill encour­ages Smith to feel the nat­ur­al grass car­pet under his feet. Despite hes­i­tat­ing to tread on a liv­ing enti­ty, Smith rec­og­nizes it as the grass’s intend­ed pur­pose. Jill pre­pares a bath for Smith, who mar­vels at the idea of immer­sion in sacred water. He rel­ish­es the expe­ri­ence and inad­ver­tent­ly reach­es for Jil­l’s bosom while she assists him. Berquist and a police offi­cer barge in. Star­tled, Jill attacks the offi­cer, who retal­i­ates. Wit­ness­ing his dis­tressed “water-broth­er,” Smith caus­es the offi­cer to van­ish. Not­ing Berquist as a threat, Smith also makes him dis­ap­pear. In a state of pan­ic, Jill swift­ly packs Smith into a large bag and flees the apartment.

Chapter 9

The nar­ra­tive unfolds against the back­drop of glob­al devel­op­ments across var­i­ous sec­tors such as pol­i­tics, cul­ture, com­merce, and pop­u­la­tion migra­tion. Dou­glas shares break­fast with Agnes, his dom­i­neer­ing part­ner. Sens­ing his unease, Agnes com­pels him to dis­close that Smith has van­ished. Dou­glas hes­i­tates to deploy the entire police force in search of him, for fear of expos­ing the false facade of the “Smith” por­trayed to the world. Both are appre­hen­sive that the authen­tic Smith may be cap­tured by the East­ern Coali­tion, a polit­i­cal enti­ty. Agnes urges Dou­glas to main­tain the facade of his “Man from Mars” being authen­tic, going as far as sug­gest­ing the real Smith may need to be elim­i­nat­ed. Though hes­i­tant to harm Smith, Dou­glas refrains from con­flict­ing with his spouse. Seek­ing coun­sel, Agnes con­sults her astrologer, Madame Vesant, request­ing horo­scopes for her­self, Dou­glas, and Smith. Vesant grap­ples with Smith’s horo­scope, neces­si­tat­ing adjust­ments due to his Mar­t­ian ori­gin. After shar­ing her find­ings with Agnes, who is con­tent, Vesant con­tacts her stock­bro­ker, lever­ag­ing clas­si­fied gov­ern­ment infor­ma­tion she acquired from Agnes. Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, Agnes makes crit­i­cal deci­sions and instructs Dou­glas to declare to the media that Smith has been relo­cat­ed to a seclud­ed hos­pi­tal in the Andes.

Chapter 10

Renowned author, physi­cian, and attor­ney, Jubal Har­shaw, observes his charm­ing sec­re­taries Anne, Miri­am, and Dor­cas by the pool. While shar­ing a lit­er­ary idea about an injured feline with Anne, his assis­tant Lar­ry inter­rupts, report­ing the arrival of a woman car­ry­ing a body. The woman turns out to be Jill, who presents the inert Smith to Jubal, rec­og­niz­ing that Smith might ben­e­fit from Jubal’s influ­ence and uncon­ven­tion­al view­points in his defense. Jill urges Smith, her com­pan­ion in “water-shar­ing,” to awak­en, and he com­plies. Dur­ing din­ner, Jubal informs Jill that he will not pro­vide legal defense for Smith but will extend refuge to him as a gra­cious host. Lat­er, as Jubal pre­pares for rest, he con­tem­plates the poten­tial chal­lenges aris­ing from his asso­ci­a­tion with Smith. Resolv­ing to sup­port Smith, he embarks on an imme­di­ate inves­ti­ga­tion into the case. The prospect of chal­leng­ing the gov­ern­ment invig­o­rates him.

Chapter 11

The nar­ra­tor offers a con­cise por­tray­al of the Mar­t­ian race. Young Mar­tians, iden­ti­fied as “Nymphs,” are described as “plump, hairy orbs” often expe­ri­enc­ing pre­ma­ture demise, while mature Mar­tians, resem­bling “ice ves­sels under sail,” ded­i­cate their exis­tence to cul­ti­vat­ing life, steer­ing the growth of flo­ra. Mar­t­ian repro­duc­tion lacks a sex­u­al com­po­nent, dis­tin­guish­ing them from humans sig­nif­i­cant­ly influ­enced by their sex­u­al ener­gy. Mar­tians per­ceive time unique­ly, neces­si­tat­ing cen­turies to rumi­nate and resolve mat­ters. Upon “incor­po­ra­tion,” or death, Mar­tians become “Ancients,” whose spir­its gov­ern Mars. His­tor­i­cal­ly, these Ancients have even opt­ed to oblit­er­ate a plan­et upon encoun­ter­ing its inhab­i­tants. Jubal and Jill com­mence instruct­ing “Mike,” the moniker ascribed to Smith by his new acquain­tances, in lit­er­a­cy. Enthralled by Jubal’s library, Mike invests sub­stan­tial time in absorb­ing its con­tents. He also immers­es him­self in the pool, sink­ing to the depths and enter­ing trance-like states, ini­tial­ly unset­tling his com­pan­ions. Swift­ly real­iz­ing his excep­tion­al abil­i­ties set­ting him apart from the norm, Mike begins to under­stand his unique­ness. Jubal express­es con­cern regard­ing the poten­tial gov­ern­ment pur­suit of Mike. When Jill con­tem­plates seek­ing Ben, Jubal reveals his engage­ment with elite pri­vate inves­ti­ga­tors. He also voic­es sus­pi­cions about Gilbert Berquist’s involve­ment in Ben’s dis­ap­pear­ance. Upon men­tion of Berquist, Jill recounts to Jubal how Mike caused Berquist and a police offi­cer to van­ish. Intrigued, Jubal urges Jill to coax Mike into demon­strat­ing this extra­or­di­nary ability.

Chapter 12

Anne, func­tion­ing as a sea­soned observ­er known as a Neu­tral Wit­ness, pre­pares to wit­ness a demon­stra­tion of Mike’s capa­bil­i­ties as request­ed by Jubal. Jill informs Jubal that Mike is prepar­ing and will join them short­ly. Jubal pro­pos­es that get­ting dressed isn’t required, but Jill insists on Mike adapt­ing to Earth­’s tra­di­tions. Jubal con­curs but empha­sizes the sig­nif­i­cance of edu­cat­ing Mike to crit­i­cal­ly ana­lyze and be skep­ti­cal of seem­ing­ly ran­dom soci­etal con­ven­tions. Jubal reveals that he’s equipped the room with cam­eras as a pre­cau­tion­ary tac­tic, pro­grammed to trans­mit to tele­vi­sion net­works if they face any threat. He acti­vates these to cap­ture Mike’s actions. Upon Mike’s arrival, Jubal ques­tions Jill and his assis­tants about their involve­ment with Mike, receiv­ing neg­a­tive respons­es. Sub­se­quent­ly, Mike shares his recent insights from lit­er­a­ture and express­es con­fu­sion over the con­clu­sion of the play Romeo and Juli­et. Jubal clar­i­fies that con­vers­ing with Romeo is impos­si­ble as Romeo is a fic­tion­al char­ac­ter. Mike strug­gles to grasp the con­cept of fic­tion and pon­ders if ancient Mar­tians would com­pre­hend it. Jubal brings up Mike’s ear­li­er act of caus­ing Berquist and the offi­cer to van­ish and asks for an expla­na­tion. Giv­en that the specifics exceed Eng­lish lan­guage bound­aries, Mike is unable to artic­u­late. Jubal tasks Mike with mak­ing a box dis­ap­pear, prompt­ing Mike to query if the box is ‘bad’ since he only elim­i­nates ‘bad’ objects. To ver­i­fy this, Jubal instructs Jill to throw the box towards him, and Mike makes it van­ish mid-air. Jubal inquires about the scope of Mike’s abil­i­ties, to which Mike explains it’s about iden­ti­fy­ing the ‘wrong­ness’ of some­thing rather than dis­tance. In anoth­er tri­al, Jubal toss­es up an ash­tray which Mike freezes mid-fall. Mike express­es remorse for his past actions, label­ing them as “wast­ing food.” Jubal con­soles him, affirm­ing the jus­ti­fi­ca­tion of his deeds. He then tasks Mike with manip­u­lat­ing the sus­pend­ed ash­tray to gauge his tele­ki­net­ic prowess. Jubal sug­gests that Jill learn the Mar­t­ian lan­guage to enhance com­mu­ni­ca­tion with Mike and advis­es Mike to uti­lize his abil­i­ties to pro­tect Jill if need­ed. For a final dis­play, Jubal asks Mike to make a gun in his hand dis­ap­pear, elab­o­rat­ing that he does­n’t want to be erad­i­cat­ed him­self. Mike reas­sures him that he won’t “waste” Jubal and envi­sions con­sum­ing Jubal’s remains after his demise.

Chapter 13

Duke, respon­si­ble for over­see­ing Jubal’s house­hold tech­nol­o­gy, pri­vate­ly shares his reser­va­tions about Mike with Jubal. Duke finds Mike’s propo­si­tion of con­sum­ing Jubal’s body post his demise dis­con­cert­ing and declares his refusal to share meals with Mike. Irri­tat­ed by Duke’s biased opin­ions, Jubal dis­miss­es him. Duke reas­sures Jubal that he doesn’t view Mike as a threat. Despite this, Jubal con­tends that Mike isn’t as untamed or benign as per­ceived by Duke. They review a play­back of Mike mak­ing an object vanish—a box hurled at Jubal by Jill—and observ­ing it dimin­ish and retreat. Regard­less of the van­tage point, the box behaves iden­ti­cal­ly. Log­i­cal­ly, an object in three dimen­sions can’t recede simul­ta­ne­ous­ly in two direc­tions. They deduce that Mike pos­sess­es a unique skill to manip­u­late objects in a direc­tion orthog­o­nal to the three dimen­sions. Jubal per­mits Duke to resume his duties if he dines with every­one else, cit­ing that can­ni­bal­ism is preva­lent in var­i­ous Earth cul­tures, and Mike’s sug­ges­tion was intend­ed as an homage. He pro­pos­es Duke con­tem­plate becom­ing Mike’s water broth­er if he opts to stay but cau­tions against tak­ing the water-shar­ing rit­u­al lightly.

Chapter 14

The nar­ra­tive unveils that Mar­tians fail to com­pre­hend the human con­cept of “hur­ry,” link­ing this human haste with our sex­u­al dual­ism. It then tran­si­tions to Earth­ly cus­toms, spot­light­ing the his­tor­i­cal dif­fi­cul­ties in estab­lish­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nels between the mass­es and their rulers. Jubal deter­mines he must reach out to Dou­glas to aid Ben. While on hold with one of Dou­glas’s aides, Jubal notices Mike engrossed in a reli­gious tele­cast by the Fos­terites on stereo vision. Even­tu­al­ly con­nect­ing with a senior police offi­cer, Jubal press­es him for infor­ma­tion. Anne informs Jubal of the Duke’s depar­ture from the premis­es. Mike express­es an inter­est in explor­ing reli­gion with Jubal despite his per­plex­i­ty. He inquires about Earth­’s equiv­a­lent of Mar­t­ian “Old Ones,” deceased enti­ties impart­ing wis­dom. Jubal is uneasy with Mike’s fas­ci­na­tion with the Fos­terites, a sect he deems par­tic­u­lar­ly unin­formed and dis­taste­ful. As an agnos­tic, Jubal remains doubt­ful about the exis­tence of any divine being. Jubal attempts to elu­ci­date the core tenets of reli­gion to Mike, while con­vey­ing the plu­ral­i­ty of reli­gions on Earth, each believ­ing in their exclu­sive grasp of divine truth. Mike strug­gles to rec­on­cile these vary­ing beliefs. When ques­tioned about human­i­ty, Jubal char­ac­ter­izes man as “the ani­mal who laughs,” a trait Mike asserts he does­n’t pos­sess. Mike draws par­al­lels between his Mar­t­ian con­cept of ‘grokking’ and Earth­’s idea of God. In a pro­found moment, he declares to Jubal, “Thou art God!” believ­ing all liv­ing enti­ties are divine, a rev­e­la­tion that appalls Jubal. The police arrive on the scene. Jubal instructs Mike to con­ceal him­self under­wa­ter. As the offi­cers emerge from their vehi­cle, Jubal recites the law ver­ba­tim, out­lin­ing poten­tial grounds for suing them.

Chapter 15

Mike lingers in the swim­ming pool, per­turbed by Jubal’s response to their dis­cus­sion. Sens­ing an instinc­tive alarm of his com­pan­ions’ per­il, he tran­scends spir­i­tu­al­ly from his phys­i­cal form to observe the unfold­ing events above the water’s sur­face. Wit­ness­ing an offi­cer threat­en­ing Jill with a firearm, he caus­es the man to van­ish. As oth­er offi­cers reach for their weapons, they too dis­ap­pear at Mike’s com­mand. He then reverts to his phys­i­cal body, lost in con­tem­pla­tion. Sub­se­quent­ly, Jill dives in to retrieve him, and beneath the water’s sur­face, they share a kiss.

Chapter 16

Jubal, at home, urgent­ly con­tem­plates his next course of action when he receives a call from his acquain­tance on the TV net­work, Thomas Macken­zie. Jubal believed that the cam­eras he had installed had broad­cast the recent events to Macken­zie’s net­work, but there was a trans­mis­sion issue. He tasks Lar­ry with rec­ti­fy­ing the error, though Lar­ry doubts his exper­tise, as such tech­ni­cal mat­ters were typ­i­cal­ly han­dled by Duke. Jubal recon­nects with Macken­zie, query­ing the course of action if he needs to con­tact Dou­glas per­son­al­ly with­in ten min­utes. Macken­zie dis­clos­es Agnes Dou­glas’s reliance on Madame Vesan­t’s astro­log­i­cal read­ings. Jubal reach­es out to Vesant, known to him from a pre­vi­ous encounter when she was referred to as Becky Vesey. He elab­o­rates on his urgent sit­u­a­tion involv­ing the Man from Mars and seeks her help in reach­ing Dou­glas. Vesant deceives Agnes with a fal­si­fied horo­scope indi­cat­ing her hus­band’s neces­si­ty to con­tact Jubal imme­di­ate­ly. Hav­ing com­plet­ed her task, Vesant shifts her focus con­tent­ed­ly back to her stock investments.

Chapter 17

Jubal com­mences writ­ing a man­u­script titled “I Mar­ried a Mar­t­ian,” swift­ly alter­ing it to “I Wed a Mor­tal.” Mean­while, addi­tion­al law enforce­ment offi­cers appear and Jubal orders for the entrance to be secured. He receives a call from Dou­glas, noti­fy­ing him that he’s Mike’s legal rep­re­sen­ta­tive. He skill­ful­ly per­suades Dou­glas to retract the police pres­ence so they can dis­cuss with­out inter­fer­ence. Jubal then per­mits the police sergeant, who is present to appre­hend him, to con­verse with Dou­glas over the phone. Dou­glas instructs the sergeant to stand down and leave. Jubal and Dou­glas agree to ren­dezvous. How­ev­er, Jubal insists on being accom­pa­nied by a small group, includ­ing Ben, as per Mike’s direc­tives. Ini­tial­ly resis­tant due to his dis­like for Ben’s writ­ing, Dou­glas even­tu­al­ly con­cedes. Jubal also seeks Dou­glas’s help in locat­ing Ben, stat­ing that as a pri­vate indi­vid­ual, he was unable to find him. The prepa­ra­tions and suc­cess­ful bar­gain­ing lead Jill to kiss Jubal in appre­ci­a­tion, and Mike in delight. Jubal admires Mike’s tech­nique and Mike equates kiss­ing to water-shar­ing and “grow­ing clos­er.” Mike offers to kiss Jubal, but he sug­gests Mike kiss Dor­cas instead. Upon doing so, Dor­cas swoons. Fas­ci­nat­ed by Mike’s skill, Anne and Miri­am also expe­ri­ence his kiss­es. Soon after, Macken­zie reach­es out to Jubal, who offers him an exclu­sive inter­view as a reward. Duke, return­ing to the loca­tion, aids in repair­ing the dam­aged net­work trans­mis­sion. Duke reveals his accep­tance of Mike’s unique eat­ing habits. Brief inter­views with jour­nal­ists fol­low. Dou­glas informs Jubal that they have locat­ed Ben, who had seem­ing­ly dis­ap­peared to Mex­i­co on a drink­ing spree. When Ben arrives, he is intox­i­cat­ed but doesn’t recall becom­ing drunk, hint­ing that he might have been drugged. Jubal prompt­ly guides him to bed. Lat­er, Jubal ques­tions Anne about what sets apart Mike’s kiss­ing, to which she responds that Mike, unlike oth­er Earth males, focus­es entire­ly on a kiss.

Chapter 18

Mike and Ben share in imbib­ing water togeth­er. Ben, trou­bled by Jil­l’s inti­mate bond with Mike, pro­pos­es they wed. Jill declines, mak­ing Ben real­ize that her con­nec­tion with Mike is pro­found and enrich­ing. Jubal sug­gests to Ben that Dou­glas could poten­tial­ly become a friend, ask­ing Ben to be less harsh in his arti­cles about Dou­glas. Ben inquires Jubal about Mike’s Mar­t­ian beliefs. Jubal, though not a fol­low­er of the Mar­t­ian faith, express­es his admi­ra­tion for Mike’s free­dom to uphold his own convictions.

Chapter 19

Mike’s group jour­neys to Dou­glas’s Exec­u­tive Palace, where on arrival, Jubal requests an aide to deliv­er a let­ter to Dou­glas, which he had been metic­u­lous­ly com­pos­ing overnight. Dur­ing a media inter­ac­tion, Mike is ques­tioned about his knowl­edge of inher­i­tance law, to which he responds by recit­ing intri­cate def­i­n­i­tions from Jubal’s legal lit­er­a­ture. A reunion occurs between Mike and Dr. Mah­moud, a lin­guist who was part of the Expe­di­tion mis­sion to Mars and has stud­ied the Mar­t­ian lan­guage exten­sive­ly. Despite their ini­tial dis­trust, Mah­moud, a British-raised Mus­lim, and Jubal main­tain a respect­ful rap­port. Mah­moud is sur­prised to learn that Jill is famil­iar with the Mar­t­ian term for “water-broth­er.” Upon dis­cov­er­ing Dou­glas’s plan to host their meet­ing in a large hall with var­i­ous Earth offi­cials, Jubal ensures equal rep­re­sen­ta­tion for their Mar­t­ian group. He even demands a Mar­t­ian flag to be dis­played along­side the Fed­er­a­tion flag and a Mar­t­ian anthem to fol­low the Fed­er­a­tion anthem, despite these being nonex­is­tent and thus need­ing to be impro­vised. He also arranges for Expe­di­tion crew mem­bers and oth­er indi­vid­u­als to align with their side. Mike receives an invite from Sen­a­tor Boone to attend a Fos­terite ser­vice on behalf of Bish­op Dig­by. Jubal shares with Boone Mike’s curios­i­ty about Fos­terites, accept­ing the invite with the intent of accom­pa­ny­ing Mike for his pro­tec­tion. Just then, Dou­glas’s impend­ing arrival is announced.

Chapter 20

Jubal sig­nals for Mike to rise upon Dou­glas’s arrival, and all com­ply except for Mike. The “Mar­t­ian anthem” request­ed by Jubal is played, empha­siz­ing that Mike rep­re­sents an autonomous nation. Dou­glas greets Mike, who responds with a rehearsed speech in Mar­t­ian and Eng­lish. Jubal receives a note from Dou­glas con­firm­ing a pri­or com­mu­ni­ca­tion, sim­ply stat­ing, “Yes.” Jubal announces to every­one that Mike’s sub­stan­tial wealth neces­si­tates full-time man­age­ment. Declin­ing the respon­si­bil­i­ty him­self, Jubal sug­gests that Dou­glas take on the role. If Dou­glas declines, Ben is the next choice. After con­firm­ing with Mike, Dou­glas accepts this arrange­ment. When a coun­cil mem­ber brings up the Larkin Deci­sion, imply­ing that Mike pos­sess­es Mars, Jubal refutes it. Jubal dis­miss­es the Larkin Deci­sion as irrel­e­vant, clar­i­fy­ing that Mars was already inhab­it­ed by Mar­tians before Mike’s birth there.

Chapter 21

The “Mar­t­ian del­e­ga­tion” retreats to a hotel where Jubal and the Expe­di­tion crew, includ­ing Cap­tain Van Tromp, Dr. Nel­son, and Mah­moud (also known as “Stinky”), enjoy some bev­er­ages. They jest about Jubal’s charm­ing sec­re­taries and Mah­moud’s sin­gle sta­tus. Mah­moud explains that he would only mar­ry with­in his Mus­lim faith. Flu­ent in Mar­t­ian, Mah­moud sheds light on the Mar­t­ian term “grok,” which he deems the most piv­otal word in Mar­t­ian lan­guage. He antic­i­pates ded­i­cat­ing years to explor­ing its com­plex­i­ties. To tru­ly “grok,” one must embrace a Mar­t­ian mind­set, a task Mah­moud sug­gests is quite chal­leng­ing for humans. “To grok,” ini­tial­ly mean­ing “to drink,” also con­veys “to fear,” “to love,” “to hate,” and “to be entire­ly equal”; it encom­pass­es reli­gion, phi­los­o­phy, and sci­ence for Mar­tians. When Mike prais­es Mah­moud’s com­pre­hen­sion of Mar­t­ian by say­ing, “Thou art God,” Mah­moud deems it sac­ri­lege, although he acknowl­edges that Mike meant no dis­re­spect. Mah­moud is intrigued by the sec­re­taries but restrains his thoughts. Dr. Nel­son inter­ro­gates Jubal about Mike’s rapid mus­cle devel­op­ment, and Mike reveals that he uti­lized men­tal pow­er to enhance his physique. Jubal con­fides in Van Tromp that he per­suad­ed Dou­glas to over­see Mike’s finances as he did­n’t want to bear the respon­si­bil­i­ty and was con­fi­dent Dou­glas could han­dle the author­i­ty and stress it entails. Jubal also shares his strat­e­gy regard­ing the Larkin Deci­sion dis­pute. To avoid polit­i­cal entan­gle­ments, he opt­ed against Mike claim­ing Mars or ced­ing his rights to the Fed­er­a­tion. Instead, Jubal posi­tioned Mike as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the ancient Mar­t­ian civ­i­liza­tion, deserv­ing of sov­er­eign treat­ment. This tac­tic com­pelled the Fed­er­a­tion to rec­og­nize the Mar­tians’ rights to Mars, effec­tive­ly dif­fus­ing the polit­i­cal con­flict. Van Tromp sus­pects Mike might be a Mar­t­ian agent, fueled by an inci­dent where a lieu­tenant from the Expe­di­tion mis­sion dis­ap­peared, pre­sum­ably at the hands of Mar­tians. Van Tromp ques­tions the Mar­tians’ peace­ful coex­is­tence. When Dou­glas sends doc­u­ments to final­ize his agree­ment with Mike, Jubal, act­ing as Mike’s legal coun­sel, enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly signs them.

Chapter 22

The elder Mar­tians delib­er­ate over a cru­cial Mar­t­ian art­work and sig­nif­i­cance, elu­ci­dat­ing notable cos­mic alter­ations and shifts with­in the soci­etal frame­work of Earth. The focus of media atten­tion on Mike has sig­nif­i­cant­ly dimin­ished, yet there remains a sub­stan­tial influx of cor­re­spon­dence reach­ing him at Jubal’s abode. Amidst these mis­sives, he receives a pro­found­ly explic­it sex­u­al propo­si­tion that star­tles Jill, prompt­ing her to bring it to Jubal’s atten­tion. Despite her incli­na­tion to erad­i­cate it, Jubal insists on uphold­ing Mike’s pri­va­cy. Remind­ing Jill of Mike’s past as a per­pe­tra­tor of lethal acts, Jubal argues that he is far from blame­less, and his inter­est in explic­it con­tent does not dimin­ish his gen­tle­man­ly qual­i­ties. Intrigued by the explic­it imagery and the sub­ject of phys­i­cal inti­ma­cy, Mike per­sists in his explo­ration of human civ­i­liza­tion. Ven­tur­ing into the realm of cur­ren­cy after Jubal illu­mi­nates its impor­tance, he is cap­ti­vat­ed by its abil­i­ty to fos­ter glob­al con­nec­tions. Inspired, Mike embarks on acquir­ing gifts for his acquain­tances, with Jill offer­ing guid­ance in select­ing suit­able offer­ings. Jubal is pleased with Mike’s gift—a repli­ca of a Rodin sculp­ture, while Jil­l’s gift of per­fume prompts her to express grat­i­tude through a kiss, lead­ing Dor­cas to engage in a play­ful flir­ta­tion with Mike. Per­sis­tent invi­ta­tions from Sen­a­tor Boone for Mike to par­take in a Fos­terite ser­vice even­tu­al­ly bear fruit, as Mike con­sents to attend, accom­pa­nied by Jubal and Jill.

Chapter 23

As they embark on the ser­vice, Jubal cau­tions Mike about the Fos­terites’ inten­tions to exploit his afflu­ence and pop­u­lar­i­ty. Dis­clos­ing his skep­ti­cism towards orga­nized reli­gions, he nar­rates his upbring­ing where those out­side his own faith were deemed con­demned, yet he man­aged to forge bonds with indi­vid­u­als like Mah­moud, a fol­low­er of Islam. His appre­hen­sion is root­ed in the fer­vor dis­played by the Fos­terites in their pros­e­ly­tiz­ing efforts, which might ensnare Mike. Upon reach­ing the Fos­terite Taber­na­cle, they are wel­comed by Boone. Intro­duc­ing them to a hall brim­ming with slot machines, Boone elu­ci­dates how the Fos­terites have incor­po­rat­ed sec­u­lar com­mer­cial tac­tics rather than shun­ning them. He posits that even gam­bling could be viewed as sacred when approached with suit­able rev­er­ence. Notably, Mike employs his extrasen­so­ry abil­i­ties to secure three con­sec­u­tive jack­pots on a slot machine, ceas­ing under Jil­l’s dis­creet guid­ance. Uneasy, Jubal con­tributes his win­nings to the church. Sub­se­quent­ly direct­ed to the quar­ters of Supreme Bish­op Dig­by, they encounter the pre­served remains of the Founder of the Fos­terite sect, Archangel Fos­ter. It is revealed that Fos­ter met his demise in the very chair he now occu­pies, with the Taber­na­cle erect­ed around him. Sens­ing a dis­con­cert­ing aura, Mike becomes alert. The trio is escort­ed to a ser­vice over­seen by a for­mer foot­baller, accom­pa­nied by hymns sup­port­ed by a cor­po­rate spon­sor. A per­former named Dawn Ardent, affil­i­at­ed with the church and an admir­er of Jubal’s lit­er­ary works serves them bev­er­ages. Jill momen­tar­i­ly grap­ples with con­cerns over Dawn’s attrac­tion towards Mike. Wit­ness­ing the spir­it­ed ser­vice, replete with fer­vent danc­ing and excla­ma­tions, cap­ti­vates Mike. Dig­by makes a grand entrance and prompt­ly intro­duces Mike to the con­gre­ga­tion. Post-ser­vice, as Dig­by and Boone enter­tain their guests, Dig­by seizes the oppor­tu­ni­ty to spir­it Mike away to a seclud­ed cham­ber. Mean­while, Boone excus­es him­self to arrange trans­port for their depar­ture. Sub­se­quent­ly, a wor­ried Jill attempts to access the cham­ber Mike is in but finds it secure­ly locked. Upon Mike’s even­tu­al emer­gence, they hasti­ly make their exit.

Chapter 24

Post their depar­ture from the Taber­na­cle, Mike appears dis­ori­ent­ed. Jubal con­fides in Jill regard­ing his mis­giv­ings about the sub­tle yet per­sua­sive meth­ods employed by the Fos­terites, stir­ring a sense of trep­i­da­tion with­in him. Jill finds their lack of sophis­ti­ca­tion dis­taste­ful, while Jubal con­tends that they are akin to oth­er reli­gious fac­tions. Draw­ing par­al­lels with poten­tial­ly con­tentious doc­trines upheld by diverse glob­al faiths, includ­ing Chris­tian­i­ty, he elab­o­rates on the sub­ject. Return­ing to their abode where Ben and Mah­moud have paid a vis­it, Mah­moud express­es appre­hen­sions regard­ing the influ­ence Dig­by might wield over Mike. Jubal posits that Mike should have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to encounter vary­ing ide­olo­gies impar­tial­ly. Aware of Mah­moud’s endeav­or to intro­duce Mike to Islam, he mus­es on the pos­si­bil­i­ty of Mike evolv­ing into a dis­tinct kind of prophet—a notion endorsed by Mah­moud. Sur­round­ed by scenic vis­tas and appeal­ing women, Mah­moud jests about poten­tial­ly resid­ing in Islam­ic Par­adise. He amus­ing­ly sug­gests con­vert­ing one of the women to Islam for mat­ri­mo­ny, met with refusal by Miri­am and light-heart­ed ban­ter from Dor­cas. Retreat­ing to his quar­ters, Mike slips into a con­tem­pla­tive state, reflect­ing on his encounter with Dig­by. The act of “wast­ing food,” in con­tra­ven­tion of Jil­l’s coun­sel, trou­bles him. Ulti­mate­ly, he con­cludes that his res­olute deci­sion-mak­ing at that cru­cial junc­ture, over­rid­ing Jil­l’s direc­tion, was ground­ed in his per­son­al judg­ment. This reliance on his inde­pen­dent deci­sion-mak­ing bol­sters his self-assur­ance. Reaf­firm­ing a prin­ci­ple he has often espoused, “Thou art God,” solid­i­fies his con­vic­tion. Sub­se­quent­ly, an enig­mat­ic encounter unfolds between Mike and an unnamed female in the kitchen. They unwind by the pool, where she broach­es the top­ic of his yearn­ing for Mars. Ini­tial­ly grap­pling with home­sick­ness, Mike now com­pre­hends (“groks”) that a sense of iso­la­tion will elude him. Their inter­ac­tion cul­mi­nates in a kiss, lead­ing to an inti­mate union.

Chapter 25

Prepa­ra­tions are under­way for the habi­ta­tion of Mars by humans, as delib­er­at­ed by the Mar­t­ian Old Ones. Incon­spic­u­ous events tran­spire on Earth, includ­ing the appoint­ment of a new Fos­terite Supreme Bish­op fol­low­ing the demise of Dig­by. Declar­ing Dig­by’s ascen­sion to the celes­tial realms, the Fos­terites revere him as an Archangel akin to Fos­ter. Fos­ter, albeit har­bor­ing lin­ger­ing resent­ment towards Dig­by for the cir­cum­stances pre­cip­i­tat­ing his demise, acquaints him with the pro­to­cols gov­ern­ing the archangels in Heav­en. Suc­cumb­ing to his new role, Dig­by con­sents to the pre­scribed guide­lines. Jubal har­bors uncer­tain­ties regard­ing Mike’s involve­ment in Dig­by’s pass­ing. As time elaps­es with Mike ensconced in a trance-like state, there is a dis­cernible trans­for­ma­tion in his persona—evolving from a sub­mis­sive demeanor to a some­what auda­cious dis­po­si­tion. Although Mike now assumes a demeanor almost indis­tin­guish­able from a typ­i­cal human in Jubal’s esti­ma­tion, a notable absence of laugh­ter is not­ed. Express­ing his desire to embark on a glob­al sojourn with Jill, Mike envi­sions Jubal as a pater­nal figure.

Chapter 26

A trav­el­ing fair unfolds, fea­tur­ing pecu­liar spec­ta­cles such as Pat­ty Pai­won­s­ki, a tat­tooed woman embell­ished by her deceased fer­vent­ly devot­ed Fos­terite hus­band. Anoth­er act show­cas­es a magi­cian, Dr. Apol­lo, and his assis­tant, Miss Mer­lin. Dr. Apol­lo exe­cutes remark­able feats like lev­i­ta­tion and van­ish­ing acts, albeit met with apa­thy from the audi­ence. The fair pro­pri­etor opts to remove Apol­lo from the tour, empha­siz­ing the need for an under­stand­ing of audi­ence’s psy­che despite the allure of his mag­i­cal prowess. Rev­e­la­tions emerge that Dr. Apol­lo and Miss Mer­lin are, in essence, Mike and Jill in dis­guise. Pat­ty, dis­heart­ened by their impend­ing depar­ture, plans a ren­dezvous at their lodg­ing lat­er. Albeit en route, Jill reflects on the mul­ti­tude of months since their depar­ture from Jubal’s res­i­dence, rem­i­nisc­ing about their trav­els and diverse employ­ments across the expanse of the coun­try. Engag­ing in a shared bath, Mike effort­less­ly caus­es his gar­ments to van­ish with­out recourse to detect­ing any flaw in them. Express­ing his per­plex­i­ty over com­pre­hend­ing the com­mon pop­u­lace, or as he terms them, “chumps,” Jill reproach­es his choice of lan­guage, notwith­stand­ing Mike’s asser­tion of their clas­si­fi­ca­tion as such. Their exchange is inter­rupt­ed by Pat­ty’s arrival.

Chapter 27

Pat­ty extends guid­ance to Jill and Mike dur­ing their enchant­i­ng per­for­mance. She views them as “seek­ers” and aspires to acquaint them with her Fos­terite belief. Pat­ty par­tial­ly strips to expose her tat­toos, which vivid­ly depict Fos­ter’s life. Some of Pat­ty’s tat­toos are con­cealed by her bra, and Jill, notic­ing Pat­ty’s eager­ness to dis­play them, encour­ages Pat­ty to remove the bra. How­ev­er, mag­i­cal­ly, Mike caus­es Pat­ty’s under­gar­ments to dis­ap­pear before she can do so, and like­wise, he does the same to his robe and Jil­l’s night­dress. Pat­ty inter­prets these abrupt dis­ap­pear­ances as a divine sig­nal and regards Mike as a holy per­sona. Mike and Jill clar­i­fy that Mike is indeed the Mar­t­ian Man, yet Pat­ty remains stead­fast in her con­vic­tion that Mike is the ter­res­tri­al man­i­fes­ta­tion of the Archangel Michael. Jill, hav­ing grasped Mar­t­ian com­mu­ni­ca­tion ade­quate­ly, engages in a tele­path­ic exchange with Mike. They mull over the idea of induct­ing Pat­ty into their water-broth­er­hood, ulti­mate­ly reach­ing a con­sen­sus. Fol­low­ing the water-shar­ing rit­u­al, Mike becomes inti­mate with Pat­ty, fol­lowed by Jill. Sub­se­quent­ly, Pat­ty shares Fos­ter’s pre­dic­tions and ide­olo­gies with them. The tale briefly touch­es on the his­to­ry of Fos­ter’s con­gre­ga­tion and Fos­ter’s per­son­al pro­gres­sive sen­su­al ten­den­cies. Pat­ty reveals a par­tic­u­lar­ly cher­ished tat­too she pos­sess­es, a kiss etched over her heart by Fos­ter him­self. The next morn­ing, Mike plants a kiss on the oppo­site side of Pat­ty’s body, leav­ing an endur­ing mark akin to a tat­too. Pat­ty is elated.

Chapter 28

Wit­nessed from Heav­en by Fos­ter and Dig­by, Mike, Jill, and Pat­ty’s inter­ac­tions are observed via an “omnis­cio,” a device resem­bling a tele­vi­sion. Pat­ty’s asser­tion that Mike is an archangel pro­vokes Dig­by’s dis­plea­sure. How­ev­er, Fos­ter hints that Pat­ty’s asser­tion might hold truth. Fos­ter admon­ish­es Dig­by for his endur­ing ani­mos­i­ty towards Mike, urg­ing Dig­by to over­see anoth­er plan­et — an oppor­tu­ni­ty to acquire gen­uine angel­ic exper­tise and to divert his focus from Mike.

Chapter 29

Mike finds the human con­cept of “love” per­plex­ing and pro­pos­es mar­riage to Jill, who declines, unwill­ing to exclude their com­pan­ions. They ven­ture to Las Vegas, where Mike com­pre­hends the allure of gam­bling while Jill per­forms as a show­girl. She rev­els in the atten­tion of male onlook­ers, lead­ing her to empathize with Duke’s fond­ness for adult amuse­ment. Jill enter­tains the thought of send­ing Duke a sug­ges­tive pho­to­graph of her­self, spark­ing a dis­cus­sion about her poten­tial inti­ma­cy with Duke. Con­clu­sive­ly, they deem it ben­e­fi­cial for her to engage with anoth­er water-broth­er. Intrigued, Mike requests Jill to demon­strate provoca­tive pos­es. Mike attends one of Jil­l’s per­for­mances where employ­ing telepa­thy, she indi­cates a man intense­ly admir­ing her appear­ance. Mike delves into the man’s thoughts, expe­ri­enc­ing his desire. He con­veys this sen­sa­tion to Jill, who is astound­ed by the inten­si­ty of the encounter. Sub­se­quent­ly, Mike com­pre­hends human desire, and they explore more risqué per­for­mances around the city. Their trav­els lead them to Cal­i­for­nia, where Mike delves into spir­i­tu­al­i­ty. Dis­con­tent with human sci­ence and phi­los­o­phy, he seeks answers in reli­gion but comes up emp­ty-hand­ed. Frus­trat­ed by his lack of progress, Mike fears that he is shap­ing Jill to be more Mar­t­ian than he is becom­ing human. At a zoo, Jill feeds a mon­key that is sub­se­quent­ly bul­lied by a larg­er pri­mate, who, in turn, bul­lies a small­er one. Struck by the absur­di­ty of the scene, Mike bursts into laugh­ter for the first time, feel­ing that he final­ly grasped human nature. Now com­pre­hend­ing their essence, he yearns to assist them and inter­ro­gates Jill about the process of becom­ing a clergyman.

Chapter 30

Atten­tion shifts to the well-being of human set­tlers on Mars and updates on Mike’s endeav­ors. Hav­ing faced rejec­tion from both the sem­i­nary and the mil­i­tary, Mike estab­lish­es his own reli­gious col­lec­tive named The Church of All Worlds, a con­cept cred­it­ed to Jubal, much to the lat­ter’s aston­ish­ment. Ben seeks out Jubal, who leads him through a new art col­lec­tion, includ­ing a Rodin sculp­ture por­tray­ing an elder­ly woman, a gift from Mike. Jubal enlight­ens Ben on the pro­found mean­ing of the sculpture—a youth­ful spir­it con­fined in an aging ves­sel. He likens anoth­er stat­ue, “The Lit­tle Mer­maid,” to Mike, allud­ing to the sac­ri­fices and strug­gles she endured for her new life. Jubal dis­clos­es engage­ments and preg­nan­cies among his staff. The pater­ni­ty of the unborn chil­dren remains uncer­tain, with Mike as a poten­tial prog­en­i­tor. Jubal dis­miss­es any insin­u­a­tion of his own involve­ment, assert­ing that his staff would only show sym­pa­thy towards him due to his age, a sce­nario he declines in favor of uphold­ing dig­ni­ty. Per­turbed by his recent encounter at Mike’s tem­ple, Ben inquires Jubal about any legal strate­gies they could employ to dis­band the church. He com­mences recount­ing his expe­ri­ence to Jubal.

Chapter 31

The chap­ter oscil­lates between Ben con­vers­ing with Jubal about his time at Mike’s abode and the occur­rences from Ben’s point of view. A dis­robed Pat­ty wel­comes Ben at the “Nest,” Mike’s head­quar­ters for his core adher­ents, induc­ing dis­com­fort in Ben. Despite feel­ing uneasy, Ben sheds his gar­ments to his under­gar­ments to assim­i­late. Pat­ty dis­clos­es her role as a High Priest­ess in Mike’s church and edu­cates Mar­t­ian along­side Dawn Ardent. Ben shares with Jubal his inter­ac­tion with Dawn, who har­bors affec­tion for Jubal due to his lit­er­ary work. Ben finds Mike’s ora­to­ry style more akin to a per­sua­sive mer­chant than a con­ven­tion­al cler­gy­man, a view Jubal deems over­ly sim­plis­tic. Nonethe­less, Ben was cap­ti­vat­ed by Mike’s ser­mon. Pat­ty elab­o­rates that Mike employs preach­ing to assess the audi­ence and deter­mine can­di­dates suit­able for advanced stud­ies. The church oper­ates on a hier­ar­chi­cal nine-tier mem­ber­ship sys­tem, with each tier being more exclu­sive. Despite being afflu­ent, Mike col­lects offer­ings dur­ing the ser­mon to estab­lish cred­i­bil­i­ty. Ben sub­se­quent­ly attends a high­er-tier meet­ing involv­ing Mar­t­ian chants and exchanges of kiss­es among mem­bers. As Mike’s water broth­er, he is grant­ed the high­est mem­ber­ship tier. Jil­l’s appear­ance at the gath­er­ing cap­tures Ben’s atten­tion. Lat­er at the Nest, Jill warm­ly kiss­es Ben and elu­ci­dates the church’s mis­sion: to enlight­en indi­vid­u­als about their inher­ent capa­bil­i­ties. Jill encour­ages Ben to stay with them at the Nest. Ben dines with Jill and Dawn, who now bear a strik­ing resem­blance due to Mike’s tele­path­ic influ­ence. Jill receives a psy­chic mes­sage from Mike request­ing assis­tance and departs, advis­ing Ben to kiss Dawn.

Chapter 32

Ben con­fides in Jubal that the ini­tial warm recep­tion from the Nest mem­bers com­fort­ed him, but he soon expe­ri­enced unease. The chap­ter delves into Ben’s encoun­ters. Awak­en­ing beside Dawn, Ben encoun­ters Duke in the kitchen. Duke urges Ben to remain, recount­ing his own jour­ney of depart­ing Jubal’s ser­vice to join the com­mune. He elu­ci­dates the church’s hier­ar­chi­cal struc­ture, dis­clos­ing that those becom­ing Mike’s water broth­ers with­out pro­fi­cien­cy in the Mar­t­ian lan­guage are dubbed the “First-Called.” He likens resid­ing with his water broth­ers to a mar­i­tal bond, remark­ing that it is vast­ly more ful­fill­ing than his for­mer mar­riage. Ruth, a ninth-cir­cle mem­ber with her spouse Sam, shares with Ben the revi­tal­iz­ing impact the church has had on her, not­ing their drug-free wash­rooms to ensure no one falls sick. Ben encoun­ters Jill at a lat­er time, who con­fess­es her desire to spend the night with him but, sens­ing his envy, resolves to calm it by hav­ing him rest with Dawn. She proud­ly dis­plays her new­ly acquired psy­choki­net­ic capa­bil­i­ties. Mike joins them, express­ing his delight at reunit­ing with Ben and shar­ing the busy­ness of his life. As Mike and Jill dis­play affec­tion towards each oth­er, Ben expe­ri­ences a sense of awk­ward­ness. Mike points out to Ben that the dual­is­tic nature of human sex­u­al­i­ty is a unique trait that Mar­tians lack. Sens­ing Ben’s resid­ual envy, Mike delays the planned rit­u­al of shar­ing water meant for Ben. Despite this, Jill is insis­tent that Ben par­tic­i­pates in the cer­e­mo­ny before depart­ing, urg­ing him to cease his con­cerns. After ini­ti­at­ing a kiss with Ben, Jill beck­ons him and Mike to par­take in the water-shar­ing rit­u­al, with Ben notic­ing the sud­den dis­ap­pear­ance of Mike’s garments.

Chapter 33

Dur­ing a dia­logue with Jubal, Ben con­fess­es his hasty depar­ture from the tem­ple out of fear of being drawn into a group inti­mate encounter with Mike and Jill. Jubal chas­tis­es Ben for show­ing dis­re­spect to the tem­ple’s tra­di­tions while being a guest. He reproach­es Ben for not tact­ful­ly excus­ing him­self from the sit­u­a­tion. Ben admits to los­ing con­trol due to his emo­tions for Jill, which Jubal inter­prets as jeal­ousy. Jubal remarks that the uncon­ven­tion­al rela­tion­ship between Mike and Jill is fea­si­ble due to their flaw­less moral com­pass, a qual­i­ty he believes he and Ben lack. Jubal express­es his hes­i­tance in embrac­ing Mike’s sex­u­al stan­dards but admires Mike’s bold­ness in ques­tion­ing estab­lished soci­etal norms. He informs Ben that in his youth, he might have con­sid­ered join­ing Mike’s con­gre­ga­tion. Ben enlight­ens Jubal that Mike’s teach­ings orig­i­nate from the ancient Mar­t­ian beings, the Old Ones. While Jubal may not whol­ly believe in the Old Ones, he respects Mike’s faith as being as valid as oth­er beliefs, not­ing the his­tor­i­cal prece­dent of sev­er­al reli­gions endors­ing non­tra­di­tion­al sex­u­al prac­tices. Jubal sug­gests that Ben returns to the Nest, assur­ing him of a warm recep­tion. He urges Ben to con­cen­trate on weight­i­er mat­ters, such as the poten­tial fate of Mike akin to that of Christ. Ben departs, and a week lat­er, he informs Jubal of his return to Mike, hav­ing learned the Mar­t­ian language.

Chapter 34

In the celes­tial domain, Fos­ter informs Dig­by that the extrater­res­tri­al enti­ties sur­veilling Mike have “lib­er­at­ed him,” task­ing Dig­by with over­see­ing him. When Dig­by appears puz­zled by this, Fos­ter clar­i­fies, stat­ing, “It’s a minor act of sac­ri­fice, and I will per­son­al­ly safe­guard it.” Mean­while, the Mar­t­ian beings, known as the Old Ones, review the insights gar­nered from prob­ing Mike’s thoughts dur­ing his time on Earth. They delib­er­ate on the deci­sion con­cern­ing the oblit­er­a­tion of Earth, a conun­drum appeal­ing to their aes­thet­ic sen­si­bil­i­ties. Con­cur­rent­ly, the nar­ra­tor out­lines recent ter­res­tri­al devel­op­ments, includ­ing legal dis­putes filed against Mike’s reli­gious fac­tion. Jubal requests Anne to bring her infant daugh­ter, Abi­gail Zeno­bia, for him to bond with. Infer­ring from her mid­dle name, Zeno­bia (derived from the Greek “Xenos,” mean­ing “for­eign”), that Mike is the father, a fact Anne had not dis­closed ear­li­er. Anne express­es her con­cern that Jubal’s pre­oc­cu­pa­tion with Mike may be impact­ing his spir­i­tu­al well-being and urges him to vis­it the Nest. Jubal pon­ders whether Mike is inten­tion­al­ly pro­vok­ing the pub­lic harass­ment direct­ed towards him, includ­ing recent arrests. While nar­rat­ing a sto­ry, Lar­ry inter­rupts with news of the destruc­tion of Mike’s place of wor­ship. Ben reas­sures Jubal over the phone that no harm has befall­en any­one; the wor­ship site was desert­ed except for a group of devo­tees whom Mike guid­ed to safe­ty tele­path­i­cal­ly. Jubal instructs Lar­ry to hail a cab for him. Tear­ful­ly, he stands before one of his sculp­tures — sym­bol­iz­ing eth­i­cal tri­umph amidst pub­lic adver­si­ty — offer­ing con­sol­ing words to it.

Chapter 35

Arriv­ing in the city hous­ing the tem­ple, Jubal hails a cab. The dri­ver, a fol­low­er of Mike, trans­ports Jubal to a hotel where mem­bers of the ninth cir­cle are con­ven­ing. Despite Jubal’s instruc­tions for Anne, Dor­cas, and Lar­ry to remain at his res­i­dence, they defy his orders and join him at the hotel. He finds Abi­gail under the care of Pat­ty’s tele­path­i­cal­ly-linked pet snake, Hon­ey Bun, along with Fati­ma Michele — the daugh­ter of Miri­am and Mah­moud. Miri­am updates Jubal on her and Mah­moud’s endeav­or to craft a Mar­t­ian lex­i­con. Ben dis­clos­es Mike’s fore­knowl­edge of the tem­ple’s destruc­tion and the preser­va­tion of their valu­able pos­ses­sions. He clar­i­fies that Mike’s psy­choki­net­ic abil­i­ties are not extra­or­di­nary but attain­able by any­one over time. Jubal observes the syn­chro­nized con­duct of the ninth cir­cle mem­bers and their unex­pect­ed mer­ri­ment despite the recent loss of their tem­ple. Ben dis­clos­es that the mem­bers regard Jubal high­ly based on Mike’s por­tray­al of him as the sole human capa­ble of ful­ly com­pre­hend­ing grokking with­out Mar­t­ian tute­lage. Despite Jubal’s skep­ti­cism about liv­ing to a cen­ten­ni­al age, Mah­moud assures him of Mike’s prophe­cy regard­ing his longevi­ty. As a devout Mus­lim, Mah­moud elu­ci­dates that his faith does not clash with Mike’s teach­ings. Over an unex­pect­ed­ly ami­able din­ner with friends and acquain­tances turned Mike’s fol­low­ers, Jubal con­tem­plates if the cer­e­mo­ny was sub­dued for his ben­e­fit. A dis­cus­sion with Sam ensues about the immi­nent upheaval in Earth­’s econ­o­my due to Mike’s extrasen­so­ry abil­i­ties, with Sam believ­ing that the insti­tu­tion of mar­riage will endure. Togeth­er, they draw par­al­lels between Mike’s orga­ni­za­tion and Jesus’s “tri­umphant jour­ney.” Get­ting ready for rest, Dawn pro­pos­es to fos­ter an inti­mate bond with Jubal. Despite ini­tial­ly declin­ing, Dawn’s threat to inform Jill com­pels Jubal to relent.

Chapter 36

Jubal has an unex­pect­ed encounter with Jill, who rejoic­es that he spent the night with Dawn, reveal­ing that the entire ninth cir­cle was psy­chi­cal­ly engaged in the inti­mate episode. Mike seeks out Jubal, find­ing solace in Jubal’s abil­i­ty to han­dle his dis­clo­sures. Mike admits to Jubal that he was dis­patched to Earth as an observ­er for the Old Ones, ancient Mar­t­ian enti­ties. His task involved col­lect­ing and doc­u­ment­ing infor­ma­tion about Earth­’s soci­ety. The Mar­tians delib­er­ate whether to anni­hi­late Earth or reshape it in their like­ness. When asked about the Old Ones, Mike describes them as ethe­re­al rulers of Mars, with deci­sion-mak­ing process­es span­ning at least half a mil­len­ni­um to deter­mine Earth­’s fate. Mike clar­i­fies to Jubal that his teach­ings, cam­ou­flaged as reli­gious, were tai­lored to res­onate with the mass­es. Mike extols the uni­ty of con­scious­ness dur­ing coitus as the para­mount eupho­ria. He acknowl­edges human ten­den­cies towards envy and aims to aid indi­vid­u­als in sur­mount­ing this obsta­cle. Mike con­fides in Jubal about him and Jill van­ish­ing as hos­tile indi­vid­u­als. Jill has grown accus­tomed to this real­iza­tion that tru­ly erad­i­cat­ing some­one is unfea­si­ble as their essence endures. Mike express­es appre­hen­sion that he may have mis­led his adher­ents regard­ing a uni­ver­sal expe­ri­ence of joy and con­tent­ment. He delib­er­ates on whether humans neces­si­tate sor­row and con­flict. He expounds that the state­ment “Thou art God” is not a mere utter­ance but a pro­found respon­si­bil­i­ty each indi­vid­ual must bear. Earth­lings, he observes, appear unpre­pared to rec­og­nize the holi­ness with­in them. Jubal coun­sels Mike to uphold Mar­t­ian patience and per­se­vere in his pur­pose, stress­ing that Mike must dis­close his verac­i­ty to humankind.

Chapter 37

A hos­tile throng gath­ers close to the inn. Clad in his finest gar­ments, Mike departs, accom­pa­nied by Anne in her Fair Wit­ness gown and Duke with cam­eras. Jubal fol­lows short­ly, although Mike pro­pos­es he stay with oth­er ninth cir­cle asso­ciates watch­ing the stere­o­vi­sion. Jubal is star­tled by an illu­sion where Mike ampu­tates a dig­it while slic­ing an apple. He retreats indoors. News cov­er­age fol­lows on the sit­u­a­tion out­side. Mike steps out of the inn. A ray of light illu­mi­nates him as his attire van­ish­es and he pro­claims, “Behold me. I am a son of man.” The footage abrupt­ly shifts to a soap adver­tise­ment, but upon resump­tion, view­ers wit­ness the mob hurl­ing stones at Mike. Mike extends a peace ges­ture of water to the enraged crowd. Sud­den­ly, a dis­charged shot­gun sev­ers Mike’s right arm. Despite the bru­tal­i­ty, Mike con­tin­ues dis­sem­i­nat­ing mes­sages of affec­tion while being mer­ci­less­ly slain by the throng.

Chapter 38

All acknowl­edge Mike’s remark­able pre­sen­ta­tion. Jubal is tak­en aback that he’s the sole indi­vid­ual per­turbed. Upon query­ing Pat­ty, he dis­cerns she was obliv­i­ous to Mike’s choice to offer him­self to the throng. Jill urges Jubal to grasp the sit­u­a­tion in its entire­ty, remark­ing that despite Mike’s cor­po­re­al demise, his spir­it can nev­er tru­ly be extin­guished. In his cham­ber, Jubal reproach­es him­self for Mike’s need­less mar­tyr­dom and endeav­ors to ter­mi­nate his own life with cap­sules. As he weak­ens, Mike mate­ri­al­izes to him in an appari­tion, advis­ing him it’s not his moment to expire yet. Mike guides Jubal to the lava­to­ry, aid­ing him in expelling the over­dose. Mean­while, Mike’s adher­ents envi­sion the future. Some aim to return to their abodes to estab­lish shrines, while oth­ers plan to stay at Jubal’s com­modi­ous res­i­dence. Duke read­ies Mike’s remains for a repast, in which they all par­take. Jubal resolves to pro­cure the site of Mike’s demise and trans­form it into a com­mem­o­ra­tive site. On the home­ward voy­age, he per­suades Dor­cas to tran­scribe notes for a new stereo play he’s envi­sion­ing, enti­tled “A Mar­t­ian Named Smith.”

Chapter 39

The account asserts with cer­tain­ty that the Old Ones will ulti­mate­ly fal­ter in their quest to oblit­er­ate Earth. Mean­while, in the celes­tial domain, Fos­ter is entrust­ed with a fresh assign­ment. Sub­se­quent­ly, he acquaints Dig­by with his new supe­ri­or, the Archangel Mike.