While chasing a man, Gwen retrieves an unusual machine that allows the user to see back into the past. When she inadvertently uses the machine, she is haunted by a vision of a lonely young boy during World War II Britain. Considering the machine dangerous, no members of Torchwood are permitted to use it. But Owen has other plans, and witnesses a violent murder that took place over forty years ago. Using the information he gathered, Owen starts to track down the still-living murderer.

A withdrawn child has her suppressed anger taken advantage of by fairies at the bottom of her garden. Jack catches up with a very old friend who is investigating fairy sightings in the local wood. After having visited her, Torchwood is informed of a man's mysterious death in a prison cell, and Tosh uncovers a series of localized, extreme weather patterns. Nobody at the organization is sure of these events, or how they may be connected. Except for Jack, who has witnessed the creatures causing this, almost a century ago.