set fifteen years in the then-future year 1983, the series tells the tale of the crew and passengers of a sub-orbital transport ship named "spindrift". in the pilot episode, the "spindrift" is en route from los angeles to london, on an ultra fast sub-orbital flight. just beyond earth's boundary with space, the "spindrift" encounters a magnetic space storm, and is dragged through a space warp to a mysterious planet where everything is twelve times larger than on earth, whose inhabitants the earthlings nickname "the giants". the "spindrift" crash-lands, and the damage renders it inoperable.