With more of her life behind her than ahead, Margaret Braverman, a physicist teaching at a small college, cannot help but regret the things she never quite got right. Most important among them was the tragic ending of her romance with her brilliant colleague Frank, something she has never gotten over. Then there is the prospect of restoring the respect of her colleagues after that unfortunate incident where she set her hair on fire. And, of course, it would be glorious to get even with that mean-spirited, conceited, womanizing Caleb Winter. Fortunately, after years of experimentation in the back room of her lab, Margaret has finally built a time machine. The key, she discovered, is in teleporting not the body but the mind. And so, at 5:03 p.m. on May 3, 2012, Margaret teleports her mind to her 1987 self. Though her body is that of a 35-year-old, the narration and point of view is that of her older self. "60″, as she calls herself, feels everything but can't move a muscle. All she can do is to passively witness what she lived once before, and, until she figures out how to influence things, nothing is going to change.