Two years later , in June 2011 , Jake stops by a local diner and speaks with the proprietor , Al , who asks Jake to meet him at his diner the next day . When Jake arrives , he is shocked to see that Al seems to have aged years since the previous day . Al explains that he is dying and that his appearance is attributable to his having time traveled and lived for years in the past . Al 's method of time travel is a time portal he discovered in his diner 's pantry , which he used to transport himself to 1958 . Doubting Al 's story at first , Jake travels through the portal , where he encounters an addled wino whom Al has dubbed the " Yellow Card Man " due to the color of a card on the man 's hat . Jake spends an hour in 1958 before returning to the present , after which Al explains that he 's figured out the basics of how the portal functions : Al reveals that after discovering the portal , he 'd concocted a plan to change the past by preventing John F. Kennedy 's assassination , hoping that doing so would change history for the better , as he attributed many bad things that happened in the world to events that would not have occurred had JFK lived . He spent four years in the past after entering the portal the previous night , traveling to Dallas , Texas to track Lee Harvey Oswald , plotting to kill the would-be assassin during his attempted murder of General Edwin Walker . His delay was due to the fact that he wanted to be absolutely sure that Oswald was a killer and would act alone . Al developed cancer , so he had to give up his mission , knowing he would not live long enough to complete it . He recruits a reluctant Jake to complete the task instead
John F. Kennedy 's assassination
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
11/22/63