CHART (Cartography Headquarters, Astro Research Trust) is Earth's galactic takeover bid. Knowledge is power, and the human race means to go on using painfully acquired knowledge of other worlds to remain top dog in the galaxy. But pioneers are not normal men.

Blake is not a normal man; and Rachel, a lovely redhead, is not a lovely sexy redhead.

In timeshift the CHART men drift off into a fantasy world; except Blake, who is condemned to repeat over and over again, agonisingly, the great trauma of his life. He doesn't know it, but this serves to prepare him for the second great crisis of his life - the weird, terrifying, sickening drama of his meeting with the Men of Crock.