At nine in the evening, the author and four of his friends returned from a house in the vicinity of Paris. The full moon was shining in the sky, attracting the eyes of revelers and exciting wit, already honed on the stones of the pavement. One suggested that this is a heavenly dormer from where the radiance of the blessed shines through. Another asserted that Bacchus was holding a tavern in heaven and hung the moon like his sign. The third exclaimed that it was an ironing board on which Diana smoothed Apollo's collars. The fourth one said that it was just the sun in a housecoat, without any clothes from the rays. But the author expressed the most original version: the moon is undoubtedly the same world as the earth, which, in turn, is the moon for it. The companions met these words with loud laughter, although the author relied on the authority of Pythagoras, Epicurus, Democritus, Copernicus and Kepler. But providence or fate helped the author establish himself on his way: returning home, he found on his desk a book that he did not put there and where it was just talking about the inhabitants of the moon. So, with a clear suggestion from above, the author was ordered to explain to people that the moon is an inhabited world.

To ascend to heaven, the author tied himself with bottles filled with dew. The sun's rays attracted them to him, and soon the inventor was above the highest clouds. Then he began to break the bottles one after another and gently sank to the ground, where he saw completely naked people, in fear, scattered when he appeared. Then a detachment of soldiers appeared, from which the author found out that he was in New France. The Viceroy met him very kindly: he was a man capable of sublime thoughts and fully shared the views of Gassendi regarding the falsity of the Ptolemy system. Philosophical conversations gave the author great pleasure, but he did not leave the thought to go up to the moon and built a special machine with six rows of rockets filled with a combustible composition. The attempt to take off from a cliff ended sadly: the author was so hurt when he fell that he had to rub his brain from bovine bones from head to foot. However, the moon on the damage tends to suck out the brain from the bones of animals, so she attracted the author. Having flown three quarters of the way, he began to sink upside down, and then collapsed on the branches of the tree of life and found himself in a biblical paradise. When he saw the beauty of this sacred place, he felt the same pleasant and painful feeling that the embryo experiences at the moment when the soul pours into it. The traveler immediately became younger by fourteen years: old hair fell out, replaced by new, thick and soft, blood burned in his veins, natural warmth harmoniously penetrated his whole being.

Walking in a wonderful garden, the author met an unusually beautiful young man. It was the prophet Elijah, who ascended to heaven on an iron chariot, with the help of a constantly thrown up magnet. Having tasted the fruit of the tree of life, the holy elder gained eternal youth. From him, the author learned about the former inhabitants of paradise. Expelled by God, Adam and Eve, having flown to the earth, settled in the area between Mesopotamia and Arabia - the pagans, who knew the first man under the name Prometheus, built up a fable about him, as if he had stolen fire from heaven. Centuries later, the Lord inspired Enoch to abandon a vile tribe of people. This holy man, filling two large vessels with smoke from the sacrificial fire, sealed them tightly and tied them under his armpits, as a result of which the steam lifted him to the moon. When a flood occurred on earth, the waters rose to such a terrible height that the ark sailed across the sky on a level with the moon. One of Noah’s daughters, having lowered the boat into the sea, also ended up in the Garden of Eden - the wildest of animals also followed. Soon the girl met Enoch: they began to live together and gave birth to large offspring, but then the godless nature of the children and the pride of the wife forced the righteous to go into the forest to devote themselves entirely to prayers. Resting from labor, he combs a linen tow - that is why in the fall a white spider web is worn in the air, which the peasants call the "threads of the Virgin".

When it came to the ascension of the Evangelist John to the moon, the devil inspired the author with an inappropriate joke. The Prophet Elijah, beside himself with indignation, called him an atheist and drove him away. Tormented by hunger, the author bit an apple from the tree of knowledge, and then a thick gloom enveloped his soul - he did not lose his mind just because the life-giving juice of the pulp somewhat weakened the harmful effect of the skin. The author woke up in a completely unfamiliar area. Soon he was surrounded by many large and strong animals - with their faces and additions they resembled a man, but moved on four legs. Subsequently, it turned out that these giants mistook the author for the female of the small animal queen. First, he was deposited with a magician - he taught him somersault and grimaces for the amusement of the crowd.

No one wanted to recognize as reasonable a creature that moves on two legs, but once among the spectators was a man who had been on the ground. He lived for a long time in Greece, where he was called the Demon of Socrates. In Rome, he joined the party of the younger Cato and Brutus, and after the death of these great men he became a hermit. The inhabitants of the moon on earth were called oracles, nymphs, geniuses, fairies, penates, vampires, brownies, ghosts and ghosts. Now the earthly people are so coarse and stupid that the lunar sages lost the desire to teach him. However, real philosophers sometimes still meet - so, the Demon of Socrates gladly visited the Frenchman Gassendi. But the moon has much more advantages: here they love the truth and put reason above all else, and only sophists and speakers are considered crazy. A Demon born in the sun took a visible image, having settled in a body that is already old, so now he blows life into a recently deceased young man.

Visits of the Demon brightened up the bitter share of the author, who was forced to serve as a magician, and then the rejuvenated Demon took him with the intention of introducing him to the court. At the hotel, the author became more familiar with some of the customs of the inhabitants of the moon. He was put to bed on a bed of flower petals, fed with delicious smells and stripped before eating completely, so that his body better absorbs fumes. The demon paid the owner for the billets with verses that were rated at the Mint and explained that in this country only fools die of hunger and smart people never live in poverty.

In the palace, the author was eagerly awaited, as they wanted to happen to the queen's little animal. This riddle was solved when, among a crowd of monkeys dressed in drawers, the author saw a European. He was a native of Castile and managed to fly to the moon with the help of birds. At home, the Spaniard almost ended up in the Inquisition prison, for he asserted in the face of the pedants that there was a void and that no substance in the world weighs more than any other substance. The author liked the reasoning of a companion in misfortune, but he had to conduct philosophical conversations only at night, because during the day there was no escape from the curious. Having learned to understand the sounds made by them, the author began to speak in half with a sin in a foreign language, which led to great unrest in the city, which was divided into two parties: some found glimpses of the mind from the author, others attributed all his meaningful actions to instinct. In the end, this religious dispute was brought before the court. During the third meeting, a man fell at the king’s feet and lay on his back for a long time - the inhabitants of the moon take this pose when they want to speak in public. The stranger made an excellent defensive speech, and the author was recognized as a man, but was sentenced to public repentance: he had to renounce the heretical assertion that his moon is a real world, while the local world is nothing more than a moon.

In a deft advocate, the author recognized his sweet Demon. He congratulated him on his release and took him to a house belonging to one venerable old man. The demon settled here with the aim of influencing the master's son, who could become the second Socrates if he knew how to use his knowledge and did not pretend to be an atheist out of empty vanity. The author was surprised to see how the gray-haired professors invited to dinner bow obsequiously to this young man. The demon explained that the reason for this is age: on the moon, the elderly show all respect to the young, and parents must obey the children. The author once again marveled at the rationality of local customs: on earth, panic fear and an insane fear of acting are taken for common sense, while on the moon the decrepitude that has survived from the mind is appreciated.

The master's son fully shared the views of the Demon. When his father decided to argue with him, he kicked the old man and ordered him to bring him a scarecrow, which he began to slaughter. Not satisfied with this, for the sake of shame, he ordered the unfortunate to walk on two legs all day. The author was extremely amused by such pedagogy. Fearing to burst out laughing, he started a philosophical conversation with the young man about the eternity of the universe and the creation of the world. As the Demon warned, the young man turned out to be a vile atheist. Trying to seduce the author, he boldly denied the immortality of the soul and even the very existence of God. Suddenly, the author saw something terrible in the face of this handsome young man: his eyes were small and set very deep, his complexion was swarthy, his mouth was huge, his chin was hairy, and his nails were black — only Antichrist could look like that. In the midst of the dispute, an Ethiopian of gigantic growth appeared and, grabbing a blasphemer across the body, climbed into the chimney with him. The author nevertheless managed to become attached to the unfortunate, and therefore grabbed his legs to tear the giant out of its claws. But the Ethiopian was so strong that he rose behind the clouds with a double load, and now the author was holding on tightly to his comrade not out of philanthropy, but out of fear of falling. The flight continued indefinitely, then the outlines of the earth appeared, and at the sight of Italy it became clear that the devil was taking the master's son straight to hell. The author cried in horror, "Jesus, Mary!" and at the same moment he found himself on the slope of a heather-covered hill. Kind peasants helped him get to the village, where he was almost torn to pieces by dogs smelling of the moonlight - as you know, these animals are used to barking at the moon for the pain that it inflicts on them. The author had to sit naked for three or four hours in the sun until the stink disappeared - after that the dogs left him alone, and he went to the port to board the ship sailing to France. On the way, the author thought a lot about the inhabitants of the moon: probably the Lord deliberately removed these unbelievers by nature to a place where they have no opportunity to corrupt others - as a punishment for complacency and pride, they were left to their own devices. Out of mercy, no one was sent to them with the preaching of the Gospel, because they would surely use the Holy Scripture for evil, thereby exacerbating the punishment that inevitably awaits them in the next world.