During the years of the American Civil War, the "Cannon Club" was founded—an association of engineers and enthusiasts who were creating increasingly powerful artillery guns. But with the coming of peace, their knowledge proved to be unneeded—and then the club’s chairman, Impey Barbican, proposes a daring and unprecedented project.
He decides to direct the power of artillery not at Earth, but into outer space—to build a gigantic cannon capable of sending a shell… straight to the Moon.
Thus begins one of the boldest scientific adventures, where engineering ingenuity, ambition, and faith in progress collide with the limits of what is possible.