A group of young hippies, each less than 20 years old, are located at a secret government project in Idaho. The government wants to shut down the project, so the idealistic scientists are keeping the nature of the project a secret. The young hippies learn of an impending catastrophe that will wipe out civilization, but exactly what is not specified. The project is developing time machine, so the young hippies use it to jump 50 years into the future in order to renew civilization. (No adults can go, because, apparently, their kidneys will hemorrhage).

After the time machines are disabled, the hippies hike to Oregon, and casually mention that they are all sterile, so there was no point in their project. The girl protagonist hikes back to the time machine, where she is attacked by a crazy girl. She finds a time machine that is working again; pops back; grabs a screwdriver, returns to the future and is stuffed into a futuristic car by a group of people to be used as fuel. (Here there is an odd statement about the "energy crisis" of 1973-74).