"Nothing could be done. The thing was universal and beyond our human knowledge or control. It was death for young and old, for weak and strong, for rich and poor, without hope or possibility of escape."

Just returned from his famous adventure in the Lost World, the resourceful Professor George Challenger faces his greatest danger yet: Earth will pass through a belt of poisonous ether, and mankind might not survive. As the poison enters the atmosphere, terror and madness sweep the globe. Cities are wracked by riots, societies crumble, and soon all communication ceases. Professor Challenger and his friends, barricaded in a sealed room, can only watch their planet die.