Chapters 1-3 Summary

Chapter 1 opens with Arthur Dent waking up in his prehistoric cave on Earth, screaming in horror as he does every morning as soon as he remembers where he is. Arthur is lost in time, having ended up on the Earth in what would be the town of Islington, England two million years later. He had been through a series of adventures across time and space and had been stranded in his present location along with his traveling companion Ford Prefect, five years earlier. After a year, Ford had gone off to live on another part of the planet. In the four years since, Arthur has been practically alone except for one bizarre occurrence two years before when a spaceship lands and its pilot emerges and says, "You're a jerk, Dent." (p. 2).

The alien pilot is named Wowbagger, the Infinitely Prolonged. He...