Eccentric millionaire Domitian Malgraff and his Chinese servant Li Wong head off in a time
machine, first to adventure into the future, but if that fails to hold there interest—says
Malgraff in a letter to his ex-fiancée—there is always the past.
You have always considered me a hopeless dreamer; and I am the last person who would
endeavor or even wish to dispute your summary. It might be added that I am one of those
dreamers who have not been able to content themselves with dreams. Such persons, as a
rule, are unfortunate and unhappy, since few of them are capable of realizing, or even
approximating, their visionary conceptions.