Timeline (1999) is a best-selling thriller by Michael Crichton that combines science fiction and historical fiction. The novel tells the story of a group of graduate students in history from Yale University who go back in time to 1357 to rescue their professor. While Timeline received mixed reviews upon its release, it was adapted into a popular video game in 2000 and later made into a very poorly received movie in 2003. Timeline borrows from real concepts of quantum mechanics, using multiverse theory to explain the time-traveling technology. Crichton also relies on academic research into the 14th century to paint a realistic portrait of life in that time period; his interpretation challenges popular notions of the medieval ages as the “Dark Ages.” Timeline includes themes of medieval technology, similarities between the past and present, and the importance of chivalry and honor.

After earning his MD from Harvard Medical School, Crichton went on to teach anthropology at Cambridge and writing at MIT, and his 1973 film, Westworld, was the first to utilize computer-generated special effects. However, Crichton is best known for writing an array of well-researched novels that incorporate elements of scientific and medical technology and thrilling adventure, with titles including The Andromeda Strain (1969), Sphere (1987), Jurassic Park (1990), and Rising Sun (1992). Due to the enduring popularity of his work, his various novels have been translated into 38 different languages, and 13 films have been adapted from his most successful titles.

This study guide refers to the 2000 Arrow Books edition of Timeline.

Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide include descriptions of death by suicide and graphic violence.

Plot Summary

Timeline is divided into four parts that correspond to the novel’s various settings: Corazón, Dordogne, Black Rock, and Castelgard.

Part 1 opens with Dan Baker and his wife driving through the desert in Arizona. They come upon a sick man and are not sure how he got to the middle of the desert. Nearby, Dan finds a strange ceramic square. They take the man to the hospital, and a scan reveals that his veins are misaligned; he bleeds out and dies in a few hours. The police use the ceramic tile to trace the man’s connection to a mysterious technology company called ITC. The man, Dr. Traub, was one of their employees. Under the direction of CEO Robert Doniger, the company covers up the man’s strange appearance in the middle of the desert and insinuates that his death was a suicide.

In Part 2, Diane Kramer, an attorney for ITC, visits one of the archaeological projects that the company is funding in the Dordogne region of France. The project is led by Professor Edward Johnston and supported by his team of graduate students. When Kramer lets slip that ITC knows more about the site than the researchers do, Johnston becomes suspicious and insists on going to ITC’s headquarters in New Mexico to speak with Doniger himself. While he is gone, his researchers discover a cache of manuscripts from the 14th century that contain a message asking for help; the message appears to be from Professor Johnston himself. The researchers then receive a call from ITC, telling them to prepare to go to New Mexico themselves. On the plane to New Mexico, Dr. Gordon, the vice president of ITC, tells the team that ITC has developed time-travel technology and that the professor insisted on experiencing it himself. Johnston has not yet returned, and ITC needs his graduate students to go back in time and save him.

In Part 3, the graduate students learn more about ITC’s time-travel technology and the theory of quantum mechanics upon which it is based. They prepare to travel back to 1357 to rescue the professor. Despite Doniger and his employees’ reassurances that the technology is safe, physicist David Stern has his doubts, and he decides to remain at the headquarters during the mission. Three of the graduate students—Katherine Erickson, André Marek, and Christopher Hughes—agree to go, accompanied by former Marine Victor Baretto and company guide Susan Gomez.

In Part 4, the team arrives in 1357 in Dordogne to rescue the professor. Gomez is almost immediately decapitated by Sir Guy, a knight of the reigning lord of Castelgard, Lord Oliver. Baretto transports himself back to the Black Rock headquarters, where one of his grenades is activated, blowing up the landing terminals and preventing the team from returning immediately. Meanwhile, the graduate students become separated. Chris runs into a young boy who helps him to evade Sir Guy and his knights. When they reach the castle, the “boy” reveals her identity to be Lady Claire, the ward of Sir Oliver and the potential fiancée of Sir Guy. Eventually, Marek and Kate also arrive at the castle in Castelgard. They are taking in the scene when Chris, who has claimed to be a squire, enters with Lady Claire. Angry at seeing her with another man, Sir Guy challenges Chris to a contest, which Chris unwittingly accepts.

Chris, along with Marek, jousts Sir Oliver’s men. When Marek defeats Sir Guy, the pair are arrested and taken to the Castelgard dungeon, where the professor is also being held. With Kate’s help, the team escapes the dungeon, only to be recaptured by Sir Oliver’s men. The professor remains with Sir Oliver after he promises to give the lord advice on how to make automatic fire, a form of advanced munitions, and to tell Sir Oliver the location of the secret entrance to La Roque, another castle that Sir Oliver holds. Chris, Marek, and Kate are imprisoned in the castle tower. When the three of them escape and make a run for it, they are chased by Sir Robert, another of Sir Oliver’s men. They escape when Castelgard comes under attack by Arnaut de Crevole, who wants the land and its wealth for himself, but they realize that Sir Oliver is taking the professor to La Roque.

Chris, Marek, and Kate decide to find the secret entrance to La Roque for themselves in order to save the professor. They go to the Monastery of Sainte-Mère, where they find manuscripts suggesting that the entrance is near a green chapel. They decide to go to the mill to search the room of Brother Marcel, a monk whom the professor said has the key to the entrance. They find a diagram describing the entrance, but they are once again attacked by Sir Robert. They escape, but Chris and Kate are separated from Marek. Then they are all captured by one of Arnaud’s men, but Arnaud agrees to let them go in order to follow them to the secret entrance to La Roque.

Marek fights off the soldiers so that Chris and Kate can make their way to the green chapel and find the secret entrance. The chapel is defended by a green knight, whom Chris kills. Chris and Kate find the secret entrance and make their way into La Roque. Marek is already there with the professor, who has been making automatic fire for Sir Oliver. The four escape La Roque to return to the year 1999. Meanwhile, in 1999, David Stern has come up with a way to repair the landing platforms so that the team can return to their own time. Back in 1357, Marek fights off the soldiers who are attacking the team during their escape attempt. At the last minute, Marek decides to stay in the medieval world, and Kate, Chris, and the professor return to Black Rock.

Upon their return, they learn that Robert Doniger plans to use his technology to transform historical moments into tourist attractions. The vice president, Dr. Gordon, knocks Doniger out, and he wakes up in the 14th century during a time in which the plague is rampant. Months later, Kate (who is now pregnant with Chris’s child) goes with Chris, Elsie, and the professor to a castle in England. They are visiting the site where Marek was buried after marrying Lady Claire and living a life of chivalric deeds.