Richard can't stop thinking about the clock. He

lies in bed each night listening to its tick-tocking,

to the pendulum's heavy swing. Why does his

granddad open its old doors in secret and walk

into the darkness beyond?

One night, too inquisitive to sleep, Richard tiptoes

from his bed, opens the cherry wood door of the

grandfather clock, and steps inside.

There, in a strange, nebulous twilight, he sees the

face of the Earth, locked forever in a simulated

world, where green things seem to grow in the

semblance of trees and plants, from unreal soil.

In this quasi-world they sit together for many

nights, the face and the boy, talking quietly of

creation and the beginning of all things. Moved

by the face's ancient tale of mysterious, magnetic

love, Richard longs to release him. So one night he

secretly winds back the hands of the grandfather

clock, and changes time forever...