It can take a long time to grow up. For Josh, six centuries isn't enough. Sixteen-year-old Josh wants only to get along with his peers and to help his grandfather, Big Daddy, with the old man's odd gadgets like the time gadget installed in the 1966 Mustang. But getting along is difficult when you're the son of a federal arms negotiator who renounces her U.S. citizenship to become an official of the New Republic of Hawaii, hoping ultimately to negotiate world peace. When tiny African country Durban explodes a weapon into the atmosphere that changes the earth's racial makeup, other nations gear up their own not-so-passive artillery, bringing on Armageddon. With no other chance for survival, Josh uses Big Daddy's time gadget to transport him and Keala, his Hawaiian-Japanese girlfriend, to a bizarre future that ends up looking a lot like home.