New Hebrides is the last habitable place on earth. A technological haven created by the visionary Alan Carver, the island rode out the end of humanity by setting itself adrift in time - though Carver died before he could reach it. After a century of isolation, however, New Hebrides is running out of resources, its population kept in the dark about their impending doom.

Seven rebellious teenagers, or Goners, are exiled to the mainland and discover why nobody can leave the island. They find themselves stranded 200 million years in the past, facing an environment too inhospitable to survive. Led by the bully who betrayed them to the authorities, the group flee east in a stolen amphibious carrier, passing through time barriers and arriving at successive eras of human history. It's an adventure at sees them encounter dinosaurs, other exiles who have become cannibals, the ice age, Neanderthals, a Highland warrior and a western lynch mob. They give man the gift of fire, cause the Battle of Little Big Horn, rob a bank and taste Pizza for the first time.

Circumnavigating the globe, the Goners eventually encounter both Alan Carver and the 'Great Chaos' - the catastrophe that destroyed their world.

And neither are what they were led to believe...