On March 6, 1933, Joe Gimlet, a middle-aged proprietor of a cigar store, crosses paths with his childhood friend, the confident banker Ted Wright. During a dinner with his wife, Mary Gimlet, Ted presents a tempting investment scheme, urging the couple to commit $4,000 to his enterprise. Joe is buoyant at the prospect, but Mary hesitates to part with their hard-earned savings, and the tension between them grows as the night wears on. In a drunken, fretful moment, Joe laments not having married the wealthy Elvina Evans Wright, a remark that deepens the rift between husband and wife and foreshadows darker trouble to come.
That same evening spirals into calamity as Joe staggers out of the house and ends up in a car accident, landing him in the hospital. When he regains consciousness, he discovers he has slipped back in time to his youth, living again in the home of his upbringing. The clues of his strange displacement multiply—a newspaper recounting Roosevelt’s African expedition confirms something uncanny has happened. He resolves to keep his foreknowledge hidden, cautiously navigating a world that now feels both familiar and strangely altered. He starts anew as a soda jerk, moving through ordinary routines while concealing the extraordinary knowledge he possesses.
In this younger life, Joe encounters Elvina again and soon enters into an engagement with her, unaware of the emotional toll it will exact on the people around him, particularly his former flame and his mother Mrs. Gimlet, who gently reminds him that wealth often wears a hollow smile. The romance with Elvina blossoms into marriage, and Joe’s unusual abilities propel him to rapid financial success. He leverages his glimpses of the future to amass wealth and prestige, all while trying to balance the demands of his double life and the expectations of those who care about him.
Meanwhile, Mary and Ted embark on their own married life, moving forward in a world that neither of them fully understands. Joe’s rise is marked by philanthropy and public admiration, yet his union with Elvina becomes strained, and mismanagement of resources slowly erodes the foundations of his fortune. The crash that marks the end of the era—the stock market collapse of 1929—rumbles through his carefully built empire, casting a long shadow over his personal and professional affairs. The unraveling leads to a divorce from Elvina and leaves betrayals by bank employees in its wake, as legal troubles loom on the horizon.
As the consequences of his choices close in, Joe experiences a surreal rush of time once more, a churning return to the crucial moment of March 6, 1933. He flees from the mounting penalties, begging Mary to leave her life behind for a shared escape. His plea is cut short by the encroaching law, and he is ultimately seized by authorities. The world quiets, and Joe awakens back in the hospital, restored to the present moment. Grateful for the life he shares with Mary, he accepts the fate that binds them together, choosing to embrace what cannot be changed and to cherish the love that endures.
