Society is collapsing before his eyes. Sixteen-year-old Cross Mundos is trying to survive in a world of nuclear disaster and environmental decay. His parents have disappeared, leaving him with an eccentric uncle, a war zone, and a landscape where death and extinction seem to be the inevitable outcome. But Cross has an intellect far beyond most in his age category, and despite the challenges he faces, is determined to find a way to endure and even thrive. To his surprise, his Uncle Ferrum reveals an instrument called a torch, enabling him to rip a hole into the fabric of time and space. This changes everything as he can transport to an identical world, with one catch it is many decades into the past! To survive in this new world, Cross must keep his previous life a secret and yet somehow blend in with the current populace. His ultimate goal is to discover what went wrong in his world and somehow change the course of events to stop the future of this new planet from complete destruction. Will history repeat itself, or will Cross be the one person who can alter its outcome?