After an accident on his way home from school, seventeen year old Joe Harding is locked out of his house. A stranger, who appears to own Joe's house, warns him to escape. Huge bells on rooftops ring out and Joe is chased out of town by a band of citizens determined to kill him.

He escapes, and after surviving alone in an England that is wild and uncultivated, joins a small band of young people in hiding. There he falls passionately in love with Kathryn. He is in a parallel world in which he wants to remain; but fate has other things in store for him...Out of Time' is passionate, violent, and it serves as a paradigm for out world and its present troubles.