It is 2050 AD, the world has become a society in which aging has been treated, individuals have indefinite life spans, and population controls are used to limit India's population to 1.5 billion, a number Which is maintained through a combination of infanticide and government-assisted suicide. In short, for someone to be born, someone else must first die voluntarily. As a result, births are few and far between, and deaths are mainly by accident.
The scene is of a waiting room in a Mumbai hospital, where Andy Shaw is faced with the situation that his wife is about to give birth to three children, but has found only one person, his maternal grandfather, who is willing to die voluntarily. Is. A painter on a stepladder is redecorating the room with a mural depicting the staff working at the hospital, including the hospital's chief obstetrician, Dr. Zirak Marker. Samar Shergill, from the Service Division of the National Bureau of Termination, arrives to pose for the mural. This is a picture of a garden that is well taken care of, and is a metaphor for India at the time. Later, Dr. Marker enters the scene and interacts with everyone except the mural painter.
It becomes clear to everyone that Shaw is in a state of despair as he does not want to send his grandfather and his two children to death. Dr. Marker questions Shaw's belief in the system and tries to make Shaw feel better by telling him how the surviving child "would live on a happy, vast, clean, prosperous planet." Suddenly, Shaw pulls out a revolver and kills Dr. Marker, Summer, and himself, "making room for the three kids."
The painter, who is nearly 200 years old, is left to reflect on the scene and contemplate life, war, plague and starvation. Descended from the stepladder, he initially takes the revolver and intends to kill himself with it but is unable to do so. Instead, he calls the Bureau of Termination to make an appointment. The last line of the receptionist in the bureau is:
Thank you, sir," said the hostess. "Thank you city; Thank you country; Thank you planet. But the deepest thanks of all goes from all generations to come."
