When penniless businessman Mr Bedford retreats to the Kent coast to write a play he meets by chance the brilliant Dr Cavor an absent-minded scientist on the brink of developing a material that blocks gravity. Cavor soon succeeds in his experiments only to tell a stunned Bedford the invention makes possible one of the oldest dreams of humanity: a journey to the moon. With Bedford motivated by money & Cavor by the desire for knowledge the two embark on the expedition. But neither are prepared for what they find a world of freezing nights boiling days & sinister alien life on which they may be trapped forever.