Welcome to Bromden, a small gas farming system far from the glitz and glamour of the core worlds. Most of its 625 million people were born and raised here. The majority have never known life beyond the hydrogen enrichment plants that orbit the two outermost planets, giant balls of hydrogen and helium gases.

Most visitors to Bromden have never met the locals. They bypass the factories and never make it in to Bromden 2, the only colonized planet. Bromden caters more to psychologists and medical professionals than sight seers and tourists, and their destination is a small, glimmering space station in orbit around lifeless Bromden 4: The R. P. McMurphy Mental health Clinic.