A great and sinister conspiracy exists to keep mankind from uncovering the truth about its past. The Victorian authors and artists, for instance, did not simply dream up their various fantastic futuristic fictions; instead, their ideas were all based upon fact. The war of the worlds was a true account of real events; Captain Nemo's Nautilus even now lies rusting at the bottom of the North Sea; and there really was an invisible man. Furthermore, Queen Victoria had a sexual relationship with Dr. Watson, the elephant man was a product of an E.T./human hybridization program, and Jack the Ripper was a terminator robot sent from the future. In actuality, a cabal of Victorian Witches from the Chiswick Townswomen's Guild—working with advanced Babbage super-computers—rewrote 19th-century history. But now a 23rd-century boy called Will Starling has uncovered the truth about everything.