On the arid colony of Mars the only thing more precious than water may be a ten-year-old schizophrenic boy named Manfred Steiner. For although the UN has slated 'anomalous' children for deportation and destruction, other people—especially Supreme Goodmember Arnie Kott of the Water Workers' union—suspect that Manfred's disorder may be a window into the future.

But what sort of future? And what happens to those unfortunates whom Manfred ushers into it? In Martian Time-Slip Philip K. Dick uses power politics and extraterrestrial real estate scams, adultery, and murder to penetrate the mysteries of being and time.