Medieval alchemist Albert tries to create an elixir of wisdom, but instead he accidentally ends up with a means of time travel. Using this means, he is transported to the Library of Alexandria and there he finds a scroll with a precious recipe. Albert tries to return home with the scroll to follow the recipe, but the library guards seized him, took the scroll away and sent him home, prohibiting him from appearing in this library in the future under pain of execution. Upset by what had happened, on the way back he made a mistake, was unable to get home, and ended up in Russia, in a school at the end of the twentieth century, where he was forced to teach chemistry.