In the future, people have discovered a way to travel to alternative version of the Mesozoic period, and this discovery can save humanity from overpopulation of the planet and other ecological disasters. However, only the chosen pnes are allowed into this "Terra Nova", and after the mysterious disappearance of the First Outpost with all of its settlers, control has become even more tightened.
Criminal Alan Cassidy, against the rules, enters Terra Nova after his wife, Geraldine, after which he finds out that she is much better off without him and that she no longer wants to have anything to do with him. They want Cassidy to be executed, but Commander John Genkel decides instead to entrust him with a suicidal mission - to build from scratch an outpost on the border between the Badlands and the settled lands.
