Terra Nova is a colony created in the Cretaceous trahnks to the discovery of a space-time rift that allows the opening of a portal to the past to travel 85 million years back in time. The trip is one way only because the portal only works from the future to the past, though there are hints about the possibility of sending radio signals towards the future. In 2149, the Shannon family joins a “pilgrimage”, a group of settlers who regularly travel in time when the portal is opened to become part of the community of Terra Nova.