Using the Plateau's mysterious energy lines as a source of power, Challenger constructs a machine to send the explorers back to London. But when he, Roxton, and Marguerite find themselves in the same place they started from, they conclude the machine is a failure and head back to the Treehouse-only to discover the Treehouse is gone! While investigating what else has changed, Roxton is captured by slavers with automatic weapons and stripped-down cars, and learns the shocking truth-he and his friends are in the year 2033, eighteen years after an apocalyptic war devastated every place on Earth except for the Plateau.