Chapters 1-4 Summary

Determined to write a non-fiction book entitled The Day the World Ended about the day the nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, freelance journalist John travels to Ilium, New York. He meets the family of the deceased Dr. Felix Hoenikker, one of the fathers of the nuclear bomb. John learns that Frank Hoenikker, the doctor's fugitive son, lives on the Caribbean island of San Lorenzo. Among an odd assortment of characters in the tiny island dictatorship, John encounters a former Calypso singer turned religious prophet named Bokonon and becomes a convert. John learns that each of the three Hoenikker offspring owns a vial of Ice-nine, the doctor's final invention. Ice-nine is so deadly that a single drop will freeze all the water on Earth, making the planet uninhabitable and killing all living things. John is just about to assume the presidency...