Scientists and business associates Morty and Chris have toiled for years to develop a miraculous device that could transform history and make them rich beyond imagination. But with every passing year Chris becomes increasingly disgruntled, especially after Morty gets engaged to Arielle, the company’s business manager – and Chris’s mistress.
One day, Chris makes a breakthrough: he transports an object through the device into the past. To celebrate the milestone, Chris arranges a family barbecue where he reveals a bit too much about the secret project in front of his guests, including his son Albert.

Morty directs Chris to travel to far-flung Abu Dhabi to report progress to the investors. As Chris prepares for the trip, Albert meets up with his friend Declan to impress him with the story of the time-transporting device. Chris’s meeting is a success, but when he tries to connect with Morty, he’s disturbed to find him incommunicado. Paranoia sets in: is Morty planning to sell the device and cut him out of the action? Chris doesn’t know that Declan has entered the lab intent on stealing the device, and that Morty interrupts the robbery-in-progress, taking a mortal blow to the head with a fire-axe, courtesy of Declan. Ingenious beyond his teen-aged years, Declan disposes of the murder weapon and Morty’s corpse before absconding with the device.

Upon his return from the Middle East, Chris discovers both Morty and the device missing, and assumes the worst. Arielle too becomes convinced that Morty took off, and aligns with her former lover to smoke out the missing businessman.

Chris visits the lab to search for clues but when his security code is rejected he breaks in through a cellar window. Alerted to the break-in the police bust in on the scene of a heinous crime.

Chris doesn’t stand a chance in court. While in prison Chris is visited by a scientist who reports on a remarkable development that gives Chris a fantastic opportunity for redemption. The scientist has acquired the laptop containing the code that drives the Pentachoron, allowing him to rebuild it.

On Chris’s instruction, the scientist sends a letter through the new Pentachoron to the younger Chris, imploring him not to join Morty’s new venture.

In a flashback to the beginning of the story, Chris reads the letter’s warning and decides to change the course of the future by turning down Morty’s offer.