The film is set in the near future, on August 22, 1970. A man sleeps in the New Mexico desert. He the pilot of the upcoming first flight to the Moon, and the rocket which will transport him there is waiting nearby. The narrator informs us that the man is called Jedediah Prentiss. He was born in 1938, graduated from college in 1959, and became a licensed rocket pilot in 1965. The narrator claims that this an insignificant name, and that nobody has ever heard of Ptentiss. Prentiss dreams and his identity changes through the dream. In 900 BC, he is Icarus. His father (an unnamed Daedalus) wakes him up and prepares him for a flight over the Aegean Sea, by use of wax wings. In 1783, he is one of the Montgolfier brothers in France. He and and his brothers prepare for their first flight with a hot air balloon over the Atlantic Ocean. In 1903, he is one of the Wright brothers. He and his brother prepare for their first flight with the Wright Flyer in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Back in 1970, Prentiss awakes and prepares for his space flight. A reporter asks him to identify himself. Prentiss seems to have forgotten his own name. He then identifies himself as "Icarus Montgolfier Wright". He claims to have been born in 900 BC, to have entered grammar school in Paris during 1783, and to have entered high-school in Kitty Hawk during 1903. He tells the reported that in 1970 he will graduate from the Earth to the Moon. He is also predicts that he will die in Mars during a 1999 expedition, and be buried there. With his new identity as the personification of humanity's pioneering spirit, Prentiss begins his flight to the Moon.