The Ruby chronicles the life of a hillbilly family in the Ozark wilderness of Missouri during the Great Depression, and their attempt to cope with mounting problems brought on by the mysterious arrival of a time-traveler from two-thousand years in the future who has become stranded.
The time-portation device has worn out and Dorian finds himself in an unfamiliar and primitive life. While searching for a replacement of the failed component—a ruby—he is taken in by the impoverished farm family and falls in love with one of the daughters.
Eventually he discovers a means to restore the ruby's power, and activates his device even at the cost of losing the woman he loves and the risk of being displaced to yet another unpredictable location.