A man, identified only as the Chemist, discovers a microscopic world inside a golden ring. Soon, he becomes transfixed with a girl he observes there and determines to shrink himself down and find her. He does this by inventing two drugs, one pill to make him smaller and one pill to make him bigger. He then tells this plan to a group of friends, and asks them to safeguard the ring while he is away. Once he returns, he tells them all the story of his adventures inside the world of the ring.
Legends do, of course, get somewhat distorted in the passage of time. In the future, the passage across space to other planets may cause a slight modification here and there.
The plans for the Ziegler heat ray have been stolen and are presently in the Arvanian embassy, where they are officially off-limits to the Americans. The American Secretary of War expects them to be smuggled out of the country at any moment. Arvania will then develop the weapon and, despite its postage-stamp size, become the most powerful nation on earth. The next logical step will be for it to declare war on the United States, which will lead to its downfall inside of three months!
Sunlight filtered through the windows into the sleep-compartment. Tony Rossi yawned, then opened his black eyes and sat up quickly. He tossed the covers back and slid to the warm metal floor. It looked like a nice day. The landscape outside was motionless.In the dining compartment his mother and father had finished breakfast. Their voices drifted to him as he clattered down the ramp. A disturbed murmur; he paused to listen. What were they talking about? Had he done something wrong, again?
Allan Stern and his secretary Beatrice Kendricks awake in New York City, one thousand years after an asteroid destroys most life on earth. Just his luck, Allan is a master engineer and can make explosives, build bridges, fly bi-planes, etc. Beatrice is the gorgeous, spunky blond along for the ride (she even gets kidnapped by a giant gorilla at one point!).In the first part the discussion is of what happened, and how they will save themselves and rebuild civilization.