An asteroid that threatens to destroy the planet Earth completely and a crystal egg that gives an antique dealer the opportunity to establish communication with another world, two primitive humans struggling to survive in a wild world, two future humans struggling to survive in a wilder world, and an unintentional magician.

In these five stories, connected to each other by the magnets of space and time, H.G. Wells narrates the passions of the human species, sometimes predicting doom, whether it is the result of its own actions or the forces of the universe, and sometimes leaving hopes for its future, but always commenting on social inequality and injustice as timeless and universal problems in its evolution.