When a Victorian scientist propels himself into the year 802 701 AD he is initially delighted to find that suffering has been replaced by beauty contentment & peace. Entranced at first by the Eloi an elfin species descended from man he soon realises that this beautiful people are simply remnants of a once-great culture now weak & childishly afraid of the dark. They have every reason to be afraid: in deep tunnels beneath their paradise lurks another race descended from humanity the sinister Morlocks. & when the scientists time machine vanishes it becomes clear he must search these tunnels if he is ever to return to his own era.