In 1995, Alex Dean has a perfect life ahead of him, but he ends up bruised, bloody, and almost drowned in a river. He awakes to find it is now 2010 or 2015 or 1999, and he must piece his life back together.

The hunt for his killer leads a dead professor of supernatural phenomena into the perilous intrigues of aliens, fairy folk, and time-travelers in this classic of science fiction. Until the day he was murdered, Professor Peter Maxwell was a respected faculty member of the College of Supernatural Phenomena. Imagine his chagrin when he turns up at a Wisconsin matter transmission station several weeks later and discovers he's not only dead but unemployed....