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Humanity obsesses over "the last question" for billions of years, as individuals repeatedly turn to Multivac in search of an answer. Readers first visit Jerrodd, Jerrodine, and Jerrodette I and II, a family en route to planet X-23 via hyperspace passage. Surpassing the triumph of Multivac, families now own their own personal supercomputers, known as Microvac. Jerrodine is emotional about leaving Earth, but her husband Jerrodd argues that X-23, where at least a million people have already relocated, will be a suitable replacement. Jerrodd, proud to belong to such a technologically advanced generation, unceremoniously observes that like Earth, X-23 will one day grow overcrowded and his grandchildren will need a new planet to inhabit. Jerrodine reflects that this cycle of relocation will repeat forever, but Jerrodd counters that even the stars run down, and entropy must increase. Jerrodd explains to his daughters that entropy refers to the "running-down of the universe." The girls are frightened and, to quiet their fears, Jerrodd asks Microvac how this process can be reversed. Jerrodd reports that Microvac can resolve the issue, but this is revealed to be lie; in reality, Microvac has given the same answer that its prior iteration gave Lupov and Adell: "INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER." 

The next scene features individuals named VJ-23X of Lameth and MQ-17J of Nicron, both appearing young but each over 100 years old. With the democratization of interstellar travel, humanity's overexpansion is bound to fill the Galaxy within five years, and though there are billions of galaxies, that number is still finite. VJ-23X is hesitant to report this data to the Galactic Council, but MQ-17J wants "to stir them up." Furthermore, though it took mankind a million years to fill Earth, it has taken merely 15,000 years to fill the rest of the Galaxy. The population now doubles every decade due to technologically induced immortality. MQ-17J reflects that in solving the problem of mortality, the Galactic AC "has undone all its other solutions." The Galactic AC, an evolved Microvac, is accessed via a two-inch AC-Contact. Sunpower units are exhausted frequently and energy requirements are only increasing, suggesting that humanity will "run out of energy even sooner than [it] run[s] out of Galaxies." This prompts the men to ask the Galactic AC if entropy is reversible. It once again declares, verbally this time, "THERE IS INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER." The men return to their work.

Finally, we visit Zee Prime, whose mind drifts through space as human bodies, now rarely used, remain on planets. Zee Prime meets Dee Sub Wun, a mind from another galaxy. They wonder about the galaxy where humankind originated. They turn to the Galactic AC, now the Universal AC, which exists in hyperspace, constructs its own successors, and is able to hear and respond to verbal questions from around the universe. The Universal AC guides Zee Prime's mind to view the "original galaxy of man" and the dead Sun, now a white dwarf. Although humans' physical bodies were transported to a new planet, Zee Prime experiences a profound sense of loss for the Sun, while Dee Sub Wun counters that all stars must die. Zee Prime reflects that humanity will cease to exist once all stars have gone extinct and asks the Universal AC how to prevent stars from dying, essentially reversing entropy. Predictably, the Universal AC responds, "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER." Zee Prime's mind departs and he begins building his own stars, deciding, “If the stars must someday die, at least some could yet be built.”

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