When the Time Traveller, a Victorian scientist, explains his theory about travelling through time to his dinner guests, they are initially sceptical. He returns a week later, pale and limping, with an astonishing tale about encountering strange new worlds and different species - the innocent Eloi and the more threatening Morlocks. The guests are left wondering whether he is to be believed and, if he sets foot in his Time Machine again, will he ever return?