The narrative follows Jason Wall, a wealthy and egotistical man who learns he has an incurable disease and only a short time left to live. Faced with his impending death, he grapples with feelings of envy and resentment towards the world, particularly towards those who will continue to live and enjoy life while he suffers. His wealth cannot buy him health or happiness, leading him to contemplate suicide, but he ultimately decides against it due to his aversion to pain. Instead, he becomes fixated on the idea of time travel, believing that if he can return to the dawn of humanity, he can kill the first man and thereby prevent the existence of humanity, ensuring that no one else experiences the suffering he faces. He initiates a crash program to develop time travel technology, successfully persuading scientists to work on the project with his financial resources. After months of development, he travels back in time and encounters the first man, whom he kills. However, to his shock, he does not cease to exist. Realizing that he must also eliminate the first woman to prevent the continuation of humanity, he initially plans to kill her after they form a bond. As he spends time with her, he begins to enjoy life in a way he never had before, even as his health deteriorates. Eventually, the woman becomes pregnant, and Jason realizes that by having a child with her, he has inadvertently introduced the potential for disease into the human lineage. Faced with the choice of killing her to fulfill his original plan or allowing humanity to continue, he hesitates. In a moment of weakness, he loses the opportunity to kill her, and she escapes with the gun. In the end, Jason Wall is left alone, suffering from the disease he sought to escape, realizing that his actions have not only failed to achieve his goal but have also doomed him to a painful death. The story explores themes of mortality, the human condition, and the consequences of selfishness and hubris.
By Stephen Marlowe · First published 1970 · Genre: Science Fiction, Philosophical Fiction, Dystopian Fiction