Chapter 1, The Arrival Summary

Solaris is set in a future time of interplanetary travel. Kris Kelvin is a Solarist, a scientist who studies the planet Solaris, and his specialty is psychology. Kelvin travels to Solaris, only to find that the planet's mysterious ocean has begun bringing to life precise duplicates of figures from the deepest recesses of the scientists' minds.

As the novel begins, Kris Kelvin travels in a small pod from the space ship Prometheus to Station Solaris, a research station above the planet Solaris. Instead of being greeted by the occupants of the research station, as he expected, he is taken on board by the station's automated robots. No one is there to greet him, but the research station is a mess. Miscellaneous supplies are heaped everywhere.

Kelvin has travelled down several corridors and into a cabin covered in dirt and...