When a strange electromagnetic surge from Katorga-12, a long-abandoned Soviet island, damages an American satellite, Captain Nathaniel Renko leads a team of Marines to investigate, only to crash-land on its shores. Once there, Renko begins slipping between the present and 1955, the year of a catastrophic accident tied to a mysterious element called E-99, and impulsively saves a scientist from a deadly fire. Returning to the present, he discovers his single act has rewritten history into a nightmare, and armed with a recovered Time Manipulation Device that can age, restore, and reverse matter, he must set right the timeline he has broken.