Twain's time travel tale takes you back to the time of King Authur and the Knights of the Round Table. Unlike most glamorous takes on the old tale, Twain paints a picture of absurdity, superstition, and human misery. The honor culture of brave knights and fair maidens is revealed to be a place of incredible ignorance, extreme poverty, and shameful inequality. The narrator of the book, Hank, finds himself unexplainably in sixth century England, where he quickly asserts himself as a magician by utilizing his knowledge of science and history. Fred is a remarkably competent man is able to begin a transformation of the realm into a more friendly and advanced place. Industry, politics, and universal suffrage are his aims, and he makes rapid progress in all three. The humor in the book centers around Hank outwitting the inhabitants of the past, especially Merlin.