The year is 2017. The Oates family, consisting of Mark, his wife Marilys, and their children Ricky and Patricia check in for their trip to Mars. Mark is relocating for his job with Texaco Water, even though Marilys raises strong objections to the idea of pulling up their roots and abandoning Earth. To make the trip, the family will go through the "jaunt," a teleportation system capable of sending things from one point to another, virtually anywhere in the universe, in the space of an instant.

Having never jaunted before, Marilys and the kids are understandably nervous about the trip. Mark seeks to set them at ease by relating the history of the technology, starting with its invention by an eccentric scientist named Victor Carune.