The Sliders land in a barren field outside some small town primed for another adventure… until they learn that they are stuck on this world for 26 days. Several days later, boredom and frustration set in: Quinn and Colin resort to tinkering with a truck at a deserted gas station. Maggie, the only Slider to have found a paying job in this desolate place, returns from her waitressing job -- she was fired. Rembrandt scavenges some reading material and as they all relax he pores over a science fiction novel. He points out some similarities between it and their adventures: inter-dimensional travel, Kromagg-like creatures, and a biological weapon developed to destroy them. Believing that this world may be more interesting than originally thought, Quinn researches the author, but finds he is a recluse who lives up in the mountains. The Sliders find the cabin and, after noticing some activity, knock at the door. Catherine turns them away, but when they reveal they are inter-dimensional travelers her father, Isaac Clark -- the book's author -- wants to hear their story. After their story is finished Catherine ridicules them -- but Isaac believes them. After all, he knew Quinn and Colin's parents.

The vortex, oddly distorted and wracked with lightning, deposits Colin and Rembrandt in a battle zone in the city, but the other two are nowhere to be found. As they puzzle over their situation, the vortex -- now normal -- opens again and Quinn and Maggie arrive, unaware that the slide was unusual.

Rembrandt pauses at the edge of a swirling chasm, wracked with despair and ready to jump. The other Sliders scream at him to stop, but when he looks to Quinn, he only urges Rembrandt to jump. Rembrandt prepares to leap -- but Maggie grabs his arm, trying to calm him, telling him to remember how this all began...Several hours earlier, when the Sliders first land on this world, they hear a scream coming from a cave. They rush into the cave to find a frightened girl, Amy (Antoinette Picatto), whose tormented grandfather, Henry (Harrison Young), is preparing to leap into the chasm. After he tells her that this duty will soon be hers, he jumps and a bolt of electricity shoots from his body into Amy's. The Sliders examine her: she appears to be unharmed, though she sobs uncontrollably. At the same time, Quinn notices an unusual emotion: a feeling of unconcern, almost peacefulness.

Quinn is immediately greeted on a new world by college friends who mistake him for his double. The Sliders visit the college where Quinn's double figures equations on a blackboard. The equations are wrong, though, and when he activates his device it explodes, damaging his eyes. Quinn and Colin rush to save him, but Quinn is intercepted by security guards since his eyes will be needed to replace Quinn 2's.

Hours of trudging along through a rolling prairie find the Sliders close to exhaustion. A passing stagecoach pulls over to give them a ride, but the driver is cautious -- they are traveling through Mr. K's territory. One of the passengers, Ben, flirts with Maggie but the calm is broken by gunfire as four desperadoes ambush them. Colin is hit and falls off the coach. The stage driver dumps the strongbox and the stagecoach races off.

The vortex leaves the Sliders on a desolate world where they soon find dazed citizens wandering the streets lifelessly. As the zombies converge on them, the Sliders take refuge in the hotel. As they step into the hotel four new zombies that are identical to the Sliders appear on the road...

In a military base Maggie accesses a lab where she finds a man hooked up to machinery. She swiftly exchanges a computer chip implanted in his skull with one she has brought, but an alarm sounds and she bolts. She makes it outside where the other Sliders await her return to slide. When she appears, they all leap into the vortex... and moments later the real Maggie escapes from the base, but misses the vortex. A squad of soldiers surround her...

The vortex deposits Quinn and Rembrandt inside a building and Colin and Maggie outside. Though neither duo can hear the other through the glass separating them, Quinn signals that he and Rembrandt will join them outside. While waiting, Maggie and Colin witness Rick trying to break into the building, but a gang of scavengers set upon him led by the vicious Jack. The two Sliders join the fray as a guard inside the building confronts Quinn and Rembrandt. He searches them and, finding no computer equipment on them, declares them to be trespassing "Offliners" until Joanne happens upon them and mistakes Quinn as Rick, whom she was supposed to meet. The guard steps away and Joanne leads the two away.

Less than an hour before the vortex is to open the Sliders are on the move, trying to avoid the Kromaggs they have encountered on this world. Taking refuge in a cave outside the demolished city, they see a woman, Christina, struggling along with an infant. When they help her back to the cave she recognizes their names: while she was imprisoned here in a Kromagg breeding camp she became friends with Wade Wells. Thrilled to find out that Wade is alive, Rembrandt wants to go rescue her, but Christina stops him: Wade was shipped out yesterday with all the others. Christina was able to escape and save her half-Kromagg baby, which she has not yet named.

A vortex appears and releases Quinn, then reappears elsewhere to drop off Colin, then leaves Rembrandt and Maggie dangling from a window-washing unit hundreds of feet above ground. The two climb to safety and even see Colin wandering the street far below -- but lose track of him once they reach the ground. Quinn, meanwhile, heads for the hotel hoping to meet the others in the three hours they have before the next slide. On the way, he notes a society mindlessly devoted to the only show on television: "Lipschitz Live,: a combination newscast/talk show hosted by the irrepressible Barry Lipschitz. At the hotel Quinn does not find his friends, but does note that two corporations are hosting some sort of reception there. He waits in the bar hoping the others will soon arrive. Maggie and Rembrandt likewise head to the hotel, but find, as Quinn did, that there are no vacancies. They do discover, however, that a Colin Mallory has checked in, so they sneak into his room -- and find clothing and liquor bottles strewn about the suite. Meanwhile, Colin arrives at the hotel and sees Quinn waiting in the bar. As he heads to his brother he is grabbed by two thugs who drag him away; Quinn does not notice.