Plot Overview
An aging couple struggles to reach a sanatorium where their son is confined due to "referential mania," a condition where he interprets all events and objects as coded messages about himself. Delays plague their journey: a broken subway train, a late bus crowded with children, and upon arrival, they're turned away because of the son's recent suicide attempt. Back home, they decide to bring him home, but three wrong-number phone calls interrupt the night, each asking for someone named Charlie.

Key Themes
The story explores paranoia and interpretation, mirroring the son's mania by tempting readers to overanalyze details like a half-dead bird, spilled jelly jars (each a unique color and flavor), and yellow imagery evoking anxiety. Nabokov critiques excessive symbolic reading, suggesting not everything holds hidden meaning—much like the futile calls that build false suspense. It also touches on immigrant isolation, parental grief, and the blurred line between reality and delusion.

Interpretations
Common readings speculate the final call signals the son's death, escape, or suicide, but Nabokov leaves it open-ended to parody "referential mania" in critics and readers alike. Details like the 39 jellies (his age?) or the bird (symbolizing him) fuel debate, yet the predominant view is that the story mocks over-interpretation. First published in The New Yorker in 1948, it exemplifies Nabokov's precise, playful style.