"I drew a breath, set my teeth, gripped the starting lever with both hands, and went off with a thud." The time traveler is on his way to a different world-his world 800,000 years in the future. He returns and recounts his journey to his friends at a dinner party.
In the future, humans called the Eloi live in simple luxury. They have become beautiful, but meek, living on their safe comfortable planet. The generations that have passed without challenge or adversity have dulled their minds. Underground machinery, built millenniums ago, feeds and clothes these innocent creatures, and still functions perfectly. But who runs the machinery for these people, and why they are afraid of the night?