1. Chapter 1: From the perspective of the clue character Gail Donick, it describes the social environment of Trantor, the capital of the empire at that time, and reveals the indisputable fact that the empire was declining. It also introduces Hari Seldon and the background of establishing a base using psychohistory, laying the foundation for the following.

2. Chapter 2: Describes the base that has been established for fifty years. At this time, the base was still a purely "scientific research base", and the leaders were still encyclopedia editors. The mayor actually had no real power. Moreover, the base is unarmed, but close to it are the "Four Kingdoms" who are eyeing it.

3. Chapter 3: Mainly depicts the character of Mayor Sever Harding. Sever Harding cleverly checked and balanced the "Four Kingdoms" in the form of scientific assistance when Terminus was completely unarmed, and successfully resolved the first Seldon crisis. Later, he used "scientific religion" to disintegrate Anacreon's offensive and resolve the second Seldon crisis.

4. Chapter 4: It tells the story of the businessman Lima (it has been a long time, maybe the protagonist’s name is not this, let’s use the one published by Reader) to successfully sell the goods produced in the base to As The story of the Grand Duke of Kang (same as "Lima"), and Lima is the epitome of thousands of base merchants and a representative of the base's use of economy to expand outward.

5. Chapter 5: It tells the story of Huber Marlowe, the merchant chief of the base, who disintegrated the Corel Kingdom’s conspiracy against the base and solved the third Seldon crisis, which put the base at a disadvantage in the war. The war was won at the lowest cost.