In 2055, Eckels, a hunter, visits the Time Safari, a time-traveling expedition service that travels back in time to the dinosaur era for "the severest thrill a real hunter ever asked for." There had been a recent election the day before, with a man named Keith becoming the U.S. President. The men in the Time Safari office all agreed that the other candidate, Deutscher, would have made the United States a dictatorship.   Paying his ten thousand dollar fee, Eckels nervously proceeds with the venture and enters the time machine, along with Travis, the safari guide, his assistant, Lesperance, and hunters Billings and Kramer. His only goal, he is told, is to hunt his assigned Tyrannosaurus Rex. The five men travel back over sixty million years from 2055 into a vast and wild wilderness. Travis warns the hunters not to step out of "the Path," a metal road carefully laid by the Time Safari that prevents hunters from touching the environment around them. Travis describes the unimaginable consequences of crushing even a blade of grass or an insect when it could affect the developments of future civilizations through a domino effect, whether severely or subtly. To stay safe, Travis explains, the Safari also marks dinosaurs with red paint ahead of time, dinosaurs that will die within the next two minutes of the hunters finding them.   Soon, the group encounters the awaited T-Rex, and Eckels has a nervous breakdown, deciding it was a terrible idea for him to come because he underestimated the size of the dinosaur. The T-Rex hears Eckels's nervous remarks and lunges toward the group. Eckels accidentally steps off the path in his attempt to reach the time machine. The group successfully kills the dinosaur, but Travis furiously threatens to leave Eckels behind since he would likely bring ruin to the company, but most importantly, to time and history. He then tells Eckels to take the bullets out of the dinosaur's mouth to not leave any traces of the future, and the group goes back home.   When they arrive at the Time Safari office, everything looked slightly different than how they left it. Eckels smells subtle chemicals in the air and sees the sky's unsettling orange and gray tones. He knows immediately the entire world has changed, and the Time Safari office sign confirms it, having a completely different spelling for its English words. Eckels despairingly shakes the dirt off his boots and sees a dead butterfly stuck in the mud. When asked, the front desk worker happily reveals that Deutscher had won the presidential election the day prior. While Eckels begs for the possibility to start over and go back in time, Travis shoots him dead with his rifle.