Young Jason Brindle sees an odd light in the tunnel of his model railway. Suddenly he realizes that he has been transported from the year 2017 to 1862 in the midst of the Cotton Famine where desperate families are surviving on a couple of potatoes or onions a day, with no electricity, and horse-drawn transport; a world he could hardly have imagined.In the important industrial town of Blackburn, he sees how families and communities supported and cared for each other.With no money, few clothes and not knowing a soul, he meets a struggling but charming family and spends several days with a vicar and his family. He forms a fond relationship with a cheeky charming girl of his own age and has amazing adventures, including a train crash and a riot.He soon makes friends, but how will he get home?