When the guvvermunt wants to pay depression-era farmer Eben Smith to plow his crops under, he has a different idea: take his goods to the city where he can barter them for wealth. But on the way, Eben and his trusty horse Lucy encounter an odd intersection of four roads, each with a people from a different disturbing future.

As an alternative to doing a stretch in jail, West Virgina moonshiner Everett Dumphee joins the army and ends up driving a time machine from New Jersey to Colorado—er, well, not just driving it.

As one of the winners of the Writers of the Future contest, Dave Wolverton was asked to write this novel based on a full-length comedy screenplay that Hubbard wrote before his death. The result is a definite departure from Battlefield Earth.