At a dinner party in Richmond, the host tells an astonishing story of his travels into the future. At first it seems that man has moved on to a higher plane of existence – suffering and war seem to have been eliminated. But in fact there are two races living on the Earth – the Eloi, a leisured, decadent, androgynous group; and the Morlocks, an underground tribe of bestial workers. When his time machine is stolen, the traveller is stranded