In 1982 an anonymous young man goes to visit a man named Hugh, a theoretical physicist. The man wants to learn more about Hugh's radical theory about the nature of atoms, and notices that a car outside of the apartment is frozen in time. Jump ahead to 2008 and the man is in high school, and watches his younger brother Cory getting beat up by a group of bullies. He steps in to protect his brother, and ends up in the hospital. He tells Cory that he has to be better so that they both stop getting in trouble, and Cory agrees. Back in Hugh's apartment, the man listens to Hugh describe his theory. Hugh talks about subatomic particles, and how physicists have always thought that observing particles changes their behavior. Hugh's theory goes against that, which is why he knew that he would be rejected by the scientific community. Hugh recalls describing his theory, which states that the possible movements of particle extends forever, making atoms able to exist in multiple places in time and space simultaneously. In 2009, the man graduates from high school and begins his adult life. Cory takes boxing lessons and gains respect and admiration from his peers. The man and Cory share moments of bonding, and the man hopes that Cory's life is beginning to turn around. However, when Cory loses a highly publicized boxing match, he spirals, eventually joining the military out of desperation. When Cory comes home after being discharged, the man notices that he seems different and withdrawn. He goes out often, and the man finds out that Cory has had a child with a girl named Keren. As the man leaves the room after talking to Cory, he sees a double of himself still sitting in the chair, but the figure suddenly disappears. In a flashback, Hugh finishes his theory and prepares to face the physics world. He knows that his idea will be unpopular, but expects it to cause a huge reaction in the scientific community. However, as years pass, his theory gets almost no attention from other physicists. In 2011, Cory gets kicked out of his home when his mother finds marijuana in his room, and the man invites him to come live with him. Cory spends most of his time at home, with Keren and their daughter coming over often. The narrator continues seeing strange visions of doubles of himself and Cory, and finds a strange glass vial in the couch where Cory sleeps. In a series of flashbacks and flash-forwards, Hugh is so focused on his theory that he neglects his wife and teenage daughter, and his daughter, Liz, attempts suicide. Hugh, unable to express his emotions, comes off as unmoved by the event. Meanwhile in the future, the man and Cory have disagreements when the man overhears Cory and Keren fighting, and, when Keren arrives home one day with a black eye, the man confronts Cory and tells him that he has to make different choices. He tells Keren to leave Cory, and, when she does, Cory seems to improve. However, a few months later, the man comes home and finds Cory distraught and high on crack. The man is able to calm him down, and eventually goes to bed. But in the middle of the night Cory goes to Keren and her new boyfriends' house and makes a scene, threatening them with a pipe and banging on their windows. Keren's boyfriend comes outside and shoots Cory in the chest, killing him. The man and his mother grieve his death, and the man finds himself trying to reconcile the event against the randomness of the universe. In 1982, Liz and Hugh have a pleasant conversation before Liz and her mother leave the house. While they're gone, Hugh has a heart attack and dies. Nancy dies a few years later of cancer, and eventually Liz commits suicide. The man reveals that Hugh's theory becomes famous after his death. Finally, the man explains that after Cory's death, his visions of alternate timelines get more frequent and realistic. He is able to see other outcomes of his choices, and the choices of those around him. Eventually he realizes that he can control time, and move backward and forward through time at his will. This is how he was able to travel to the past and talk to Hugh long before his death. However, the man explains that no matter what he tries, he cannot change the course of events that he witnesses. He is unable to save Cory, Hugh, LIz, or anybody else that he has lost. He can visit parallel universes where they are alive, but is not able to bring them back in his universe. He describes another timeline where Cory lives and gets to be with his family.