In Washington DC in 1994, the Senate Oversight Committee (SOC) is being spoken to in the capitol building by George Spota, who explains that for the past 20 years, Doctor Hans Kleindast, the Nobel laureate who help the government with the space program back in the 1960s and 1970s, has been doing research, and his field of research has been time travel. The SOC believes that Hans is a quack — until George tells the SOC that Hans actually succeeded in his research and took a trip to the past then back to the present. You can't travel into the future because the future hasn't happened yet. George makes it clear that a covert agency is needed to police time travel, so the Time Enforcement Commission (TEC) is formed. Named as the director of the TEC is Commander Eugene Matuzak, formerly of the Washington DC police department. Senator Aaron McComb, who sees possibilities, agrees to chair the oversight on the new program. Sometime later, at a shopping center, TEC agent Max Walker and his wife Melissa are being watched by a pair of shady looking men. Later, at home. Max and Melissa spend some passionate time together. That night, Melissa is about to tell Max something extremely important when the phone rings. Max answers the phone and is told to go to TEC headquarters. Max gets dressed and as soon as Max opens the front door to go outside, he is attacked by the two men from the shopping center. As the two men are beating Max up. Max sees Aaron looking out the window of the bedroom that Melissa is still in, and Aaron is holding Melissa hostage, forcing Melissa to watch Max's beating. The two men outside then shoot Max, who is wearing a bulletproof vest — and then an explosion engulfs the house, killing Melissa. On October 30, 1929, on Wall Street in New York City, a man named Lyle Atwood enters an office building and rides an elevator up to an office. There is a sudden ripple in the office, and Max enters from the future. It turns out that Lyle is Max's partner, and Lyle is planning to stop the depression from happening. Max wants to know who Lyle is working for, and Lyie calls two security men into the office to deal with Max. Max beats up the two security men, and Lyle pulls out a gun and opens fire on Max. When Lyle runs out of bullets, Max forces Lyle to admit that he's working for Aaron, and that Aaron has paid off a lot of other TEC agents as well. Lyle then jumps out the window. Max jumps out after Lyle, grabs him, and takes Lyle with him back to present time, which is now the year 2004, ten years after Melissa's murder. TEC judge Marshall sentences Lyle to be immediately executed, so Lyle is sent back to 1929 and is dropped to his death from the point in midair where Max and Lyle disappeared to 2004. At TEC Headquarters in 2004, Aaron, Max, and Matuzak are showing Senator Malcolm Nelson around the TEC building. Aaron reminds everyone that people who go back in time risk coming into contact with a past version of themselves. The same matter cannot occupy the same space at the same time, because if that happens, and if it's a person accidentally making physical contact with their past version, that person will die, and their body will disappear from the face of the Earth. Later, Max tells Matuzak that Aaron wants to shut down the TEC so no one can stop him from altering the past to his advantage, because Aaron is now running for President of the United States. Aaron's fading campaign for president is dealt a blow when he is denied federal campaign matching funds. Just before Max wakes up, two men break into his home to kill him, but Max turns the tables and kills the two men who broke in. TEC internal affairs investigator Sarah Fielding questions Max. Max soon learns that Sarah may be on the wrong side in this. Max must travel back and forth in time to bring Aaron down...and when Max goes back to 1994 and finds out what Melissa wanted to tell him 10 years ago, it gives Max incentive to at least try to prevent Melissa's murder.