THE SHADOW OUT OF TIME is a Cthulhu Mythos story, first published in the June 1936 issue of Astounding Stories. The story follows Professor Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee, who suffers a sudden mental collapse in 1908, losing his memory for five years. During this period, his body is controlled by an unknown intelligence while his own consciousness experiences life in a vast prehistoric era, housed within the body of a member of the Great Race of Yith—an ancient, time-traveling alien species that exchanges minds with beings across time to gather knowledge.