In 1999, John Sullivan, who lives in his boyhood home, finds an old ham radio that his dad had built, and he naturally wants to see whether it still works. As it turns out, not only does it work, but it puts him in communication with 1969 where he talks to his dad, Frank, on the very day before Frank’s death in a fire. With help from John, Frank avoids the fire, which gives his 1999 son the memories of both a fatherless life and a life where Frank survived but John’s mother did not.

The people of the future are dying, so they send time-traveling dolls back to 2007 where they can communicate only with sappy Seattle children.