A pair of failing high school students — Bill S. Preston, Esquire and Ted “Theodore” Logan — are visited by a time traveler from the future who takes them on an adventure through time to gather up actual historical figures to help them with a history report.

After the death of his brother on the road, unemployed and unstable drifter Arthur Waldo stays for a while in the rural Australian town of Paris as the guest of the mayor, who hopes he will become a permanent member of the Paris population. Arthur soon realizes the quaint hamlet has a sinister secret: they orchestrate car accidents and rob the victims. Survivors are brought to the local hospital, lobotomized, and used for a local doctor’s experiments.