In the celestial realms, three superhuman beings—gods, or perhaps angels—watch Earth with a mix of curiosity and doubt. They challenge one among them to conduct an experiment to see whether humans, these “animals,” might earn a place among the stars by wielding real power over reality, while preserving free will as decreed by a higher authority. A random subject is chosen, and the power to shape reality lands with George McWhirter Fotheringay, an English middle-class haberdasher’s apprentice.
In a pub, Fotheringay faces friends who debate miracles, and he tests his will by performing a striking demonstration: an oil lamp turns upside down and burns downward, untouched by hands. At home, the same trick unfolds with a candle, and he soon moves objects—lifting a table, raising a bed—and even conjures a playful cornucopia of fruits and rabbits from his turned bed. His growing miracles spill into the clothing store where he works, where he briefly makes freckles vanish and other minor wonders occur. But a dangerous slip of his power follows a careless curse that coats a policeman in flames, and the man is inexplicably relocated to San Francisco.
Realizing the scope of what he has unlocked, he seeks guidance from the vicar Mr. Maydig, who hatches a sweeping plan: abolish famine, plague, war, poverty, and the ruling class itself. Fotheringay’s feats draw the attention of the authorities, including Colonel Winstanley, whose skepticism soon hardens into alarm as the vicar’s grand design comes into play. The Colonel and his men attempt to shoot him, but Fotheringay discovers a startling invulnerability that turns every assault into a near-miss.
A turning point arrives when the young man decides not to let others comingle his power with their own agendas. Instead, he creates an old-fashioned realm in which he stands at the center of the universe. He dons kingly garb and crowns the woman he loves, Maggie Hooper, as queen, while summoning leaders from around the world to fashion a utopia free of greed, war, famine, jealousy, and toil. Yet this experiment teeters on catastrophe: Maydig begs him to wait, and to buy time Fotheringay halts Earth’s rotation. The consequence is catastrophic—everything and everyone not bound to him is cast into chaos, vanishing from the planet’s surface as civilization tears apart in a dizzying, airborne crash.
Overwhelmed by the destruction and guilt, Fotheringay calls upon his powers once more to restore the world to its prior state and to relinquish his miraculous abilities. He reappears in the same pub, attempting the lamp trick anew, only to find it fails. A celestial observer notes that the episode leaves humanity with “negativism, lust and vindictive indignation,” yet the power’s giver argues that humans were animals yesterday and still have a spark of indignation against wrongness in their hearts. The beings decide to give humanity power gradually, so wisdom can keep pace with growth, and they vow to return years later to see how the experiment has progressed.
