Part 1 of Essay
This story has four main characters, they have been chosen by a race called the puppeteers to investigate a gigantic artifact. Nessus, Louis Wu, Teela Brown, and Speaker-to-Animals are the ones chosen to do it, each of them because of particular qualities: Nessus for his insanity, Louis Wu because he has survived an advent ....

Part 2 of Essay
.... the artifact, a gigantic band constructed around a sun; they try to contact the inhabitants, in many ways, but fail. They end up crash landing onto the planet. They find that there is a system of shading devices around the sun to create day and night, as well as produce power. The first sight of the natives, from overhead, surprises them, the natives are Human. They investigate many parts of the Ringworld, from floating castles, to deadly sunflowers, a priest, a meteorite hole, Nessus losing one of his two heads, ....