The book opens in 1920 with a gathering of the Prognosticators' Club, which consists of, among others, a Campbellite minister, a Jewish boy, a black woman, and a skeptic, who offer a vision of Springfield in 2018 in prose derived from such varied sources as the Bible, Swedenborg, and Marx.
We behold with him how a book of air, gleaming with spiritual gold, comes flying in through the walls as though they were but shadows.