The narrator sets out on an ordinary fishing trip and is suddenly lifted from Earth by a strange flower that proves to be the reflection of a powerful Martian telescope-magnet. Transported to Mars, he meets a man who vanished years earlier and learns about an advanced, orderly society that uses wireless electricity, has exterminated predators, practices equal suffrage, and publishes Earth news. The visitor tours laboratories, homes, and canal systems, witnesses aerial travel and electric-powered firearms used for fishing, and observes carefully managed wildlife and clear waterways, experiencing Martian hospitality and technological marvels before preparations are made to return him home.