Paleontologist Dr. Helmut Axt, nicknamed Hackebeil, is searching for fossils in the oil shale of the Messel pit. However, what the world-famous site near Darmstadt reveals this time shatters his scientific worldview: it is the fossilized remains of a human with a wristwatch. Through what time hole did the deceased from our world end up in the 50-million-year-old oil shale? Axt embarks on a journey that takes him millions of years back to the Eocene - an era in which humans should not exist. Yet, he is not alone there. An extraordinary scientific thriller about one of the most fascinating fields of natural science, evolutionary research.