As the world progresses into the industrial age, a professor studying the "nature of pure matter" is spirited away by a would-be dictator and connived into building a super-bomb, as a young reporter and a girl rescued from the sea attempt to warn him of their mutual kidnapper's intentions to dominate the world with a new and more-deadly-yet weapon.

After their lightning catching zeppelin crashes, Rowe and her Captain August, must protect their haul from lurking scavengers as they struggle to survive in the harsh desert.