When Edward Turnbull finds himself in an embarrassing situation in a young lady's bedroom, he little suspects he's on the brink of the most astonishing adventure of the century. For, in deepest Surrey during the 1890s, he is introduced to an extraordinary invention - Sir William Reynolds' Time Machine. Before long, the impulsive Edward has stumbled on a discovery all his own - that what moves through Time can also, sometimes, move through Space. But when Sir William's machine deposits him in a seething mass of voracious weed, he is more than a little perturbed to find himself on the planet Mars. Now Edward must summon all his British courage and Victorian ingenuity to warn Earth of the approaching nightmare of a war between the worlds!