In the Pandora's Prisoner story, a person returns to earth from 200 years into the future. His mission is to try and understand the meaning of hope. In the future, hope has been lost and self-extermination, suicide to most of us, is the norm. However, he is a member of a group that knows that at one time on earth, hope was prevalent, so he was sent back in time to capture the basis of hope and return it to the future, so it would not be lost for ever.
This future person struggles with trying to understand why some people have hope and others are in despair. He makes friends with an invalid and teaches the invalid how to self-heal and heal others in exchange for helping the person from the future to rediscover hope. The exchange and the dilemma are the essence of Pandora's Prisoner.
Hopefully, this is a provocative premise if I do say so myself. And I do say so.
Pandora's Prisoner on Amazon.
