The narrator is among the guests who are gathered at the home of a brilliant inventor, whom the narrator calls only the Time Traveller. Most of the other guests are referred to by their professions, again without proper names. These include the Provincial Mayor, a Medical Man, and a Psychologist. Rounding out the guests are a young man and a man named Filby, “an argumentative person with red hair” (2). Over after-dinner drinks, the host regales them with his ideas about manipulating the dimension of time so that travel in time might become as easy as travel in the three dimensions of space.

The Time Traveller’s chief argument is that no three-dimensional object can exist for only an instant; instead, all things must travel continuously through time. By way of illustration, he says that humans can travel freely in two dimensions, but we struggle against gravity to rise vertically. Perhaps someone might discover a way to free people from the ever-evolving present so they can move much further forward or backward in time.

His audience is skeptical, but the Time Traveller insists that he has “experimental verification” for his ideas. He brings into the salon “a glittering metallic framework, scarcely larger than a small clock, and very delicately made” (8).