Imagine believing you’re trapped in a virtual reality, when in reality, you have time-traveled. The year is 2030. William ‘Temple’ Gates and his cohort, John ‘Bet’ Warne, gain unauthorized access to research labs and experimental drugs at Elysian Enterprise. They meet every Sunday and conduct reckless experiments into the nature of consciousness. One Sunday, in the Virtual-Reality lab – primed by visual cues and a drug known to induce out-of-body experiences – Temple is, unwittingly, bilocated through space-time to London, January 29, 1774. The first person he encounters there is Benjamin Franklin.
Temple believes he is trapped in a virtual reality … and lives accordingly. His audacity and unconventional worldview attracts Ben’s legendary curiosity. Weeks later, Ben contrives to make Temple his grandson. He serves as Ben’s secretary and confidant during the American Revolution, giving him a ringside view of Ben’s indispensable part in the founding of the United States. Temple lives a bold, adventurous life in the 1770’s, a life his shyness inhibited in 2030.