A free world or perpetual conflict? How much impact can one man have on the future? The year is 2265 and Earth is a utopia populated by free-willed and contented people. How did this perfect world to come about?

Virtual reality simulations of past events are generated using the unlimited computer power of the day. One project stems from the events surrounding a car accident in 1945 involving General George S. Patton. The simulation is used to look into an alternative world. In this other world – our world – General Patton had been killed in the accident.

The simulation shows how the Cold War dominates the latter half of the 20th century, but this had not occurred in the utopia's past. Why?

General Patton understood that communism preached world domination, and the U.S.S.R. under Stalin would spread its tyranny throughout the post-war world. He wanted to defeat them while the time was right. Patton proposed a continuation of the war in Europe and said he could make it look like the Soviets had started it.

The events that occurred in the utopian world after Patton survived the accident describe a war against the Soviets, and the part played by a rogue Russian General, Andrey Vlasov. His Russian Liberation Army had previously fought against Stalin and would now play a major part in the war against the totalitarian state corrupting his homeland.

The simulation's revelations reveal that it had taken the sacrifices of a war against tyranny for a perfect world to exist.