[1] Due to extreme overpopulation of Earth, citizens in the year 2055 are constrained to "stoners" – cylinders that suspend all atomic and subatomic activity in the body – for every day of the week, except for the one to which they are allocated.
[1] Tom Pym only experiences Tuesdays, but yearns to contact a beautiful woman, Jennie Marlowe, who awakes only on Wednesdays.
To be with Jennie, Tom attempts to have his allocated day changed to Wednesday, but significant government bureaucracy is involved.
An influential psychiatrist, Doctor Traurig (German for "sad"), after viewing Jennie's cylinder, agrees that Tom's life would be better on Wednesday, and pushes through his application.
"[4] Michael Smith described the story as depicting "perhaps the most extreme example of constrained freedom in an overcrowded future.