What was left of the United States disintegrated into numerous virtually-independent enclaves, though President John F. Kennedy may still be alive in a bunker somewhere.

Meanwhile, the "world next door" which avoided nuclear war in 1962 is going to experience it thirty-five years later because Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms went wrong in the worst possible way.

At the end of the novel, many children from the second world are transported across and given refuge in the "1962 War"-world, where meanwhile the "National Guard" robbers had been dealt with rather ruthlessly.

)[3][4] In a review for Aboriginal Science Fiction, Janice M. Eisen described The World Next Door as having an "intriguing plot" but that the worldbuilding was confusing in places.

[3] By contrast, Science Fiction Chronicle reviewed the novel more positively, praising "the blend of melodrama and mysticism in the final chapters.