A skeptical H. G. Wells investigates time-travel mysteries including an aristocrat's love affair with a murdered prostitute from the past, a Victorian woman's escape to the future, and a plot to murder celebrated authors to steal their written works.

Israel Armstrong - the hapless librarian who solves crimes and domestic problems whilst driving a mobile library around the north coast of Ireland - suspects a teenage girl's disappearance has something to do with his lending her American Pastoral from the library's special "Unshelved" category. Now he has to find the lost teen before he's run out...