
A moonlit night in 1931 finds the grand Ploving Manor buzzing with music and youthful energy, as the post‑war generation dances beneath English stars. Stephen Darville, a bright‑eyed engineer, is torn between a fleeting romance with the spirited Jean and the urgent summons of his mentor’s secretive workshop. The manor’s glittering terraces and the distant roar of the Channel set a vivid backdrop for their fleeting moments together.
Inside Professor Ploving’s laboratory, an enigmatic device known as the Ploving Tube hints at a daring scientific breakthrough—one that could bend the very flow of time. While the professor shields his work from curious eyes, Stephen must decide whether to indulge his heart’s longing or to step into the unknown realm of experimental physics. The story balances the thrill of a new era’s possibilities with the timeless pull of love and duty, inviting listeners to wonder what lies beyond the first step into the future.
Language
en
Duration
~16 minutes (15K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2020-02-24
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1907–1970
A mid-20th-century science fiction writer best remembered for the time-travel tale Forever Is Not So Long. His work appeared in pulp-era magazines and is still read today through public-domain and bibliographic archives.
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