The story follows the fortunes of a late nineteenth century Englishman identified only as Graham, living in London in 1897. One day, he suddenly falls into a strange coma-like "trance", due to his dabbling in drugs to cure a prolonged and serious insomnia. He sleeps over the course of decades, and awakens exactly 203 years later, in futuristic 2100. He soon finds out that he has inherited sizeable wealth from his cousin Warmings and a friend of his, Isbister. His money had been put into a trust. Over the years, the trust, known as the White Council, used Graham's unprecedented wealth to establish a vast political and economic world order.