Tannhauser, a young American physicist, sets out on an adventurous vacation to rural Germany in the late 1960s. While working on his PhD thesis he comes to Trüberbrook seeking to crack a tiresome mental block. But something in this town seems strangely spaced out. The superficial German homeland setting gradually evolves into a puzzling sci-fi mystery. Tannhauser teams up with Gretchen, a paleoanthropologist, seeking to unravel the secrets surrounding the village. He also bumps into the enigmatic inventor Lazarus Taft, a stranded traveler yearning for home.