An archaeologist gives his life savings to the young inventor of a new kind of blowtorch in exchange for his services. He has the inventor use the blowtorch to open the otherwise impenetrable metal door sealing a cave. Inside is a discovery that dwarfs into insignificance all previous archaeological finds. It's a one-million-year-old machine. Later, the inventor is on trial for the murder of the archaeologist, but the true story of what happened matters less to the man on trial than the terrible significance of that machine in the cave.
—J. Spurlin