The story begins in the nineteen century, the century when Julian West, the main character and narrator of the story, was born. Julian is a wealthy man engaged to a beautiful women but he suffers because he sees the inequality around him and realizes that there is nothing he can do.
Julian suffers from insomnia and the only way he can sleep is by locking himself in a room in his basement and being hypnotized. Despite knowing that he could remain trapped in that state for a long time, Julian still continues to seek the help of a man capable of putting him in a deep sleep.
One day however, Julian is unable to wake up and when he does wake up, he finds that he slept from 1887 until 2000. Julian was discovered by a medic who tried to build a laboratory over the place where Julian’s house used to be. Julian is convinced that he is in the future when the doctor who discovered him, Leete, shows him how the city landscape changed.
The doctor tells Julian that the world no longer has a poverty problem because now the state deals with distributing the money and the goods to its citizens. Everyone has the right to be educated no matter their background or family and a person is educated until the age of twenty-one.
Money exists no longer and every citizen receives the same quantity of goods each year to use. Business transactions exist no longer between citizens and every person does the same amount of work. The amount of work and the difficulty of the work done by a person depend on that person's skills and capacities, and even those who are not able to work receive the same amount of goods as the person who is in charge of supervising a large group of workers. Every item is priced according to the amount of effort it takes to make and its demand.
Julian goes with Edith shopping in a distribution center and there he finds that everyone has access to a distribution center, even in the rural areas. Every person can also enjoy some form or entertainment or another for free.
Julian’s insomnia disappears after a while and he slowly integrates into the new society. He learns that trading between countries is strictly controlled and that everyone is free to move to another country should they want to. The idea that some jobs are better than the others disappeared and every job is considered as being equally important so that there is no shame in working some trade or another.
Creators are not regulated by the normal convention and are free to work on their literary pieces or any other type of art. The same thing applies to magazines and newspapers. The age at which someone can retire is thirty- three and if a person should decide to retire, he will receive half of the yearly credit he received during the time he worked.
The President of a country is elected by a council and if the council is pleased with that men, then he can be elected a second time.
The law has been simplified and the rate crime dropped drastically because the wealth gap disappeared. Lying was also strongly discouraged so if a person was involved in some crime, he or she usually confessed quickly. There are no military forces and no family cooks because the state distributes the food as well. The number of people who are sick and disabled was also reduced and so the cost to provide medical aid was reduced as well.
Women’s situation changed as well and they were no longer dependent on their men and people got married because they loved one another, not because of their wealth. In the 2000s, men were not the only ones who confessed their love but women as well. The 19th century was referred to as being barbaric in the 20th century and Julian feels responsible for that and feels like he will never be able to integrate in the new society.
The novel ends with Julian having a nightmare. He dreamt that he returned back in time, in the 19th century and tried to explain to those in his time what he saw in the future but was caught at. Julian wakes up and is relieved to see that he is still in the 20th century.
