Selby Staples and Rivet Foreston are eating their noon lunch, sitting on the steps of their next demolition project. They both enjoy the hectic noontime activity across the street as office workers and other people hurry about finding a place to eat. As Selby works on his lunch, occasionally changing the exact location of his body, he keeps hearing the sounds of horses whinnying, wagons creaking, and drivers hawing, but sees nothing. Eventually he becomes exactly centered on the steps and sees people going about their business in what looks like the 19th Century, then crossing what evidently is an invisible line and reappearing in the twenty-first century. Seeing the two worlds simultaneously is a bit unnerving. His buddy and co-worker, Rivet, sitting on the bottom step, looks up at him. Rivet’s face has aged. The two men don’t know it yet, but they are witnessing a very dangerous time warp. Adelman, another co-worker with a yet-unknown connection to the old building, appears and tells them demolition of Matherby Hall must stop, and he needs help stopping it. Only these three men will stand between time passing normally forward, or reverting backward to chaos.
