In 1979 Karl Alexander burst upon the literary world with a brash, exciting novel with a unique concept: H. G. Wells, the famous, bestselling author of such sensations as The Time Machine and War of the Worlds had actually invented a time machine.

When H.G. Wells showed his friends his fantastic time machine he never suspected that his college friend, Leslie John Stevenson, was in truth the Jack the Ripper.

But, when Scotland Yard detectives show up at Wells's house looking for Stevenson, he steals the machine and flees to the future―1979 San Francisco. Knowing that he was responsible for the infamous murderer's escape, Wells pursues the Ripper into the future.

Once in San Francisco, Wells realizes that he must now save a city, and a particular lovely young woman, from a new reign of horror at the hands of the feared Terror of Whitechapel.