The story opens with Ninon stretching on her couch, described as having a 'lazily catlike' quality that is both languid and alert. Her obsession with aging is immediate: she monitors her joints and muscles for stiffness, banishes frowns to prevent wrinkles, and dismisses her collection of beauty treatments as 'toys.' The narrative voice shifts between her internal resolve and a detached observation of her rituals, establishing a tension between her self-perception and the reader's view.

Ninon's solution to her enemy—Time—comes from a book titled Time in Relation to Time, which she holds beside her couch. The excerpt does not reveal the book's contents, but her plan is clear: she will 'turn Time on itself and destroy it.' The opening thus sets up a character-driven conflict rooted in vanity and a desperate desire for control.

The Mirror and the Beta-Gun

Midway through the story, Ninon confronts Robert, a young spaceman, demanding he confirm her rejuvenation. When he coldly states, 'You're looking your age, Ninon. Every year of your fifty-two,' she reacts instantly with a beta-gun, reducing him to 'a motionless, glowing figure' that dissolves into dust. This moment crystallizes her ruthlessness: she values her own perception over reality and eliminates anyone who contradicts it.

Afterward, she polishes a spot on the wall to use as a mirror, seeing a 'ghostly reflection' that confirms her youth. The narrative here relies on her subjective view—she sees what she wants to see—while the reader knows Robert's final words were accurate. The beta-gun serves as a literal tool of denial, erasing evidence she cannot accept.

A Changed Solar System

As Ninon's ship decelerates, she observes the planets through the port. Saturn lacks its rings—'Here was change'—and Mars appears as 'a new planet, where the asteroids had been.' These details signal that her journey has taken her far into the future, though she does not grasp the scale. She dismisses the discrepancy, thinking, 'no matter—she was still Ninon.'

The story uses these astronomical anomalies to underscore her isolation: she is so focused on her own transformation that she fails to recognize the world has moved on without her. The rings of Saturn and the asteroid belt are familiar reference points for readers, making their absence jarring and hinting at the vast passage of time.

Waiting for an Audience

In the final excerpt, Ninon waits in her sling as the ship lands automatically. She imagines 'excitement and rushing about' and men flocking to her. The people outside gather at a safe distance, watching. The story ends with her resting 'quietly, serenely,' while the rocket tubes cool.

The contrast between her fantasy and the cautious crowd is stark. She expects adulation; they keep their distance. The narrative does not reveal what happens next, leaving her suspended in anticipation. This open ending emphasizes her delusion: she believes she has conquered time, but the changed solar system and the wary onlookers suggest otherwise.

Voice and Structure in the Excerpts

The story is told in close third person, primarily from Ninon's perspective, with occasional shifts to a more neutral tone. Her internal monologue is marked by fierce self-assurance and a vocabulary of control: 'she scourged it fiercely,' 'she banished it imperiously.' The prose mirrors her obsession, lingering on physical sensations and cosmetic details.

Structurally, the excerpts move from her apartment to a spaceship, then to an unknown future Earth. Each setting narrows her world: from a room of beauty treatments to a ship with no mirrors, to a planet she does not recognize. The progression reinforces her growing isolation, even as she believes she is becoming more desirable.

These excerpts offer a concentrated view of a character whose vanity drives her to extreme measures, but they leave key questions unanswered: How does she acquire the spaceship? What is the mechanism of the time-dilation effect? And what awaits her on this changed Earth? Readers should pay close attention to the book Time in Relation to Time—its contents are hinted at but never explained in the excerpts, and it may hold the key to the story's logic. The narrative rewards careful observation of Ninon's self-deceptions and the subtle clues about the passage of time.