An exploration of how light, time, and gravity combine to distort our perceptions of the universe. We eavesdrop on a series of walks along a beach in the year 1809. William Herschel, whose many discoveries include the insight that telescopes are time machines, tells bedtime stories to his son John, who will grow up to make some rather profound discoveries of his own. A stranger lurks nearby. All three of them figure into the funhouse reality of tricks that light plays with time and gravity.

Science casts its Cloak of Visibility over everything, including Neil, himself, to see him as a man composed of his constituent atoms. The Ship of the Imagination takes us on an epic voyage to the bottom of a dewdrop to discover the exotic life forms and violent conflict that's unfolding there. We return to the surface to encounter life's ingenious strategies for sending its ancient message into the future.