Richard Carpenter, a forty year old boatyard worker living on Long Island in New York, has just been told by his doctor that he has cancer again and that it will kill him within one year's time. He has been plagued by medical problems for most of his life and recent genetic research seems to indicate that he has inherited faulty DNA from some relative whose own health was negatively affected by environmental factors. All of this points to Richard's grandfather who was an alcoholic and exposed to numerous noxious chemicals during his time of working on the U.S. Navy's first submarines.

Things get worse when the boatyard that Richard has been working at is forced to shut down, but he answers a job ad run by the Brookhaven National Laboratory for a position that requires many of the welding and construction skills that he has learned. He is hired to work on a top secret project that turns out to involve time travel, and when the project funding is cut and they have to rush their final testing, Richard volunteers to be the test subject sent back into the past. His only stipulation is that they send him back to 1899 where he hopes to meet his grandfather and help him to get sober and avoid some of the hazardous conditions at the submarine plant. Richard recognizes that this may be the only chance that he has to alter his defective DNA and save his life.

He adopts a false identity, meets his grandfather and is hired to work along- side him at the Holland Torpedo Boat Company. Having brought certain knowledge with him from his own time (around 1985), Richard is able to play a key role in the building of these early submarines. He becomes somewhat famous due to the success of some early trials of the submarine "Holland VI", and after several failed attempts is finally able to keep his grandfather sober and reduce his exposure to harmful gasses and exhaust fumes on the submarines. Along the way he meets and falls in love with the owner of local boarding house, but is tormented by guilt for having been unfaithful to Susan, the wife that he left behind. He also spends a Christmas holiday with his grandfather and grandmother in unusual circumstances since they are both younger than him at the time of his visit in 1899.

Author Ralph Brady is a retired executive from the transportation industry with a lifelong thirst for travel and adventure. He has traveled throughout Europe and the United States as well as to China and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Checking off items on his bucket list has allowed him to SCUBA dive, skydive, fly gliders and small aircraft and attend a race car driving school. Ralph holds a second degree black belt in Shorin Ryu karate and has completed more than twenty full marathon road races.

Borrowed Time" is Ralph's third book and his first attempt at a novel. His other works involve the histories of Long Island and the Glendale section of New York City where he spent his childhood. He is married to his childhood sweetheart, has three married children who have given him seven grandsons. Ralph and his family all live on Long Island in New York.