Following a global catastrophe, a group of people get lost in a desert confused about what they are doing there. A family appears - Pastor Goodfield, his wife and children - and guides them to an abandoned mining town, assuring them safety from the numerous predators roaming the desert. Once settled in the town, which they name Goodfield after their rescuers, they are promised that after helping to extract the rare priceless mineral from the mine, they will be taken to a beautiful island the pastor calls Heaven-on-Earth where they will be unimaginatively happy. But gradually Tim, along with his friends Venus and Joe, begin to question the honesty of Goodfield and his associates, fearing that they and the other townspeople are being used to a sinister purpose that may prove to be extremely dangerous. So Tim plans to escape from the town and try to discover where they came from and why they left. Once free, it takes him days to reach Isla Paradiso, where Tim encounters Dr. Sands, who fled the mining town only a month before. When Tim learns from the doctor and the others hiding with him why the group left the island and who the Goodfields really are, he knows he must returning to the mining town. Once there, he will reveal to the inhabitants the truth of their situation and free them from the trap they have allowed themselves to be caught in.