A New England University history professor; William Altman, believes he has discerned a mathematical flow-pattern in history, as well as the mark of a “secret” organization who appear to have left behind a recurring symbol as clues. His colleague, physics professor Alfred Lesher, is intrigued with the relationship that Altman's writings have with his work in quantum entanglement, and moreover, he has discovered a set of blueprints for a quantum displacement device which appears to be a forgery ascribed to famed inventor, Nicolai Tesla, which bear the self-same mysterious symbol.

On winter hiatus, Lesher invites Altman to his cottage in the English countryside in order to discuss these ideas at length. Added to the mix is his daughter, Sara; a graphic designer, who is dragged along for the weekend “get-a-way”, much to her dismay. In the course of their time together Lesher introduces Altman to the device he has labored on, which he believes will open "doorways" to alternate dimensions in time and space. Soon after the trio realize that the "secret organization" Altman has stumbled upon is indeed quite real, and is dedicated to ending Altman and Lesher's investigation into the matter.

In order to escape the seemingly imminent violence of the group's operatives, Altman and Lesher's daughter engage the device, and are at once deposited in an alternate reality in the year 1871. The pair soon realize that they are "out of time", and endeavor to blend in with contemporary social norms and manners of Victorian England, initially with great (if not comical) difficulty. Fortunately for the floundering pair, they quickly fall in with an odd group of characters who are aligned to rescue a young girl held hostage by the same mysterious organization, which appears to function in both the "Steam World" and our reality, and is referred to only by the vague eponym: "The Echelon".

Armed with their foreknowledge of history and Altman's handy mathematical nodal point chart, the pair convinces themselves, and their new compatriots, that it is within their power to help "this" Earth to avoid many of the most horrible tragedies of history. But, to do this, they will be forced to fight the elusive tendrils of an insidious conspiracy that has dominated the course of earth and this strange new alternate reality, straddled between the inventiveness of the steam age and the myriad dangers of the modern world.