Clifford Simak’s "The Eternity Highway," a summary

Published in 1986, the writer’s final novel combines themes of time-travel, the dangers of artificially transforming the mind, and the search for the true purpose of the human species. The work unfolds the story of fugitives.

Jump around the corner

Jay Corcoran calls Boone. Complex surgery following a serious plane crash long ago has given the detective an uncanny ability to discern hidden space-time anomalies. Tom Boone possesses a unique innate ability to step around corners in moments of mortal danger, instantly transporting him to a safe, invisible reality.

The sudden disappearance of a secretive client, Andrew Martin, prompted the urgent meeting. This enigmatic man had spent years collecting strange rumors from around the world, including a tale of an English estate, Hopkins Acre, vanishing into thin air in 1615 while its owners were away. The detectives found the hiding place. Corcoran discovered an invisible extension on a blank brick wall of the Everest Hotel, slated for demolition, which served as a secret refuge for the mysterious client, floating unsupported above the pavement. At the moment of the explosion, the partners launch the chronoplane.

A refuge for fugitives in Shropshire

The module takes the detectives to the English estate of Hopkins Acre in 1745. A small group of people from the distant future has taken refuge here: ancient history researcher Timothy, the hot-tempered practitioner Horace, his wife Emma, the thinker Enid, and the tracker David. The estate is guarded by an invisible dome. Living alongside the people are a spherical, spiky alien named Thorn and a semi-corporeal relative named Henry, who draws life energy directly from sunlight. The family is on the run from the Endless.

Aliens from the center of the galaxy are forcing intelligent species to enter a disembodied state to survive in a cooling universe. The vast majority of Earthlings in the distant future have voluntarily agreed to transform into incorporeal energy sparks on celestial crystal grids, completely renouncing material existence. The dissenting settlers have stolen time machines. The peaceful life of the estate is interrupted by the arrival of a crashed chronoplane from Athens: a wounded messenger reports the destruction of the Greek base and dies in the arms of its owners. A spider-like killer robot attacks the estate. The inhabitants of Hopkins Acre hastily flee the besieged estate on the three surviving craft.

Ice Age and the Gray Track

Enid and Boone’s timeship travels fifty-four thousand years back in time to the frigid prairies of North America. Enid sets off alone.

Soon, a mighty old bison, at the cost of his own life, smashes an attacking spider-like monster against the rocks. Boone, arriving just in time, ends the mortally wounded prehistoric giant’s torment with a single shot to the heart from a hunting rifle. The mechanical brain begs in vain for mercy. While hunting in the company of a wandering wild wolf, the reporter accidentally gets his foot caught in a narrow crevice in a limestone cliff. The sudden fright activates the mutation. Tom and his four-legged companion are instantly transported into an unknown gray space.

An unmanned cart delivers the fugitives to a station on the Eternity Highway — a mysterious, endless track beyond time. A flat-headed robot chef is on duty here. A rag doll in a conical hood named Hat sits at a wooden table, transmitting telepathic messages to the guests from invisible masters.

Wanderings in time and space

In the distant future, Enid encounters a strange procession of hallucinatory Earthlings. The cunning alien, Konepyos, enlists the trusting girl to help him create the Seine — a magical tool for instantaneous spatial travel through star clusters. They find Tom. On an alien planet, the satellites recover a panoramic television screen along with a chest containing a living, three-dimensional map of our galaxy.

Corcoran and David land nine hundred and seventy-five thousand years from the beginning of time, meeting an elderly space explorer in a dilapidated city. At the top of the ruins, Jay finds a staircase. The metal steps wind around a giant tree trunk, reaching an unfathomable height into the sky. A disembodied Henry brings disturbing news. Returning to the Ice Age, David dies at the fangs of a saber-toothed cat, and Corcoran buries his comrade’s remains and climbs the steps of the space tree directly to the same Highway.

The group reunites at the station. Konepes unfurls a galactic model before the travelers, clearly showing a colossal black hole at its core and a star system marked with a special cross. Martin has brought three Endless. The former New York contact has arrived in a stolen chronoship, agreeing to transport the exiled cultists in search of intercession.

The Court of Rainbows and the Mountain Refuge

Horace, Emma, and Timothy find themselves fifty thousand years into the future, away from their home era, at an abandoned monastery. A squad of robots is building fortifications. Thorn lures a mechanical assassin inside the building, after which the monastery transports the squad to an alien planet under a purple sky with two moons. The spiky creature pushes its pursuer into the abyss. A flying craft arrives and takes Timothy to the Galactic Center, hidden among inaccessible rocky peaks.

The Interstellar Council conducts a large-scale investigation. After reviewing the earthling’s testimony, the judges declare the Infinites dangerous fanatics and quarantine their home planet indefinitely. Timothy is appointed researcher.

The remaining travelers on the Seine reach the crystalline world of the Rainbow People, where ancient beings pass a just judgment on the intruders. The Rainbows condemn the arrogance of the Infinites. Before disappearing, the higher beings transmit a colossal amount of knowledge about the laws of life’s origins into the consciousness of Tom and Enid.

Reunion and a Secret Plan

The seine takes the fugitives to the Galactic Center, where the family finds peace in a replica of their family homestead. Corcoran returns to the twentieth century. Boone decides to remain forever in the safe mountain valley with his beloved Enid.

Martin, marooned on twenty-third-century Earth, builds a thriving religious cult around the robot head he finds.

The finale reveals the hidden motive force behind the events. Konepyos turns out to be the last representative of an ancient race of cosmic observers who, for centuries, have guarded the development of young civilizations and guided their evolutionary potential toward higher intellectual forms through a chain of hidden clues and timely interventions. He orchestrated the entire journey of the fugitives. The Mentor gave the humans the timeships, brought Tom together with Enid to foster a new branch of humanity, and directed the expedition through the doll Hat and his faithful pet Thorn. The alien flies to the edge of time. There, he retrieves the ghostly Henry from the last withering tree of the dying Earth under a gigantic crimson sun and returns him to his family.