Hertell Daggett, the caretaker of a failing pet cemetery, unearths a vast time-cavern full of people, part of a long-forgotten Government program to preserve Western civilization in the charred aftermath of the nuclear war triggered by JFK's assassination -- at least that's what their computer simulation predicted. He leads the duck-and-cover civilization into the modern world, and discovers a past he never quite remembered, a love he never quite lost and a future he never quite imagined.