The novel picks up where the events of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory left off: Charlie Bucket, his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bucket, and his grandparents, Grandpa Joe, Grandma Josephine, Grandpa George, and Grandma Georgina, are with Willie Wonka inside his glass elevator, which shot through the roof of Wonka’s chocolate factory at the end of the previous book. The family is amazed by the glass elevator, which allows them to float over the city, but when the elevator continues to rise through the sky until they can make out continents, they begin to get worried; both of Charlie’s grandmothers fret that they will all be killed. Even Grandpa Joe and Charlie, who have grown to trust Willie Wonka through their incredible tour through the factory, voice their doubts.

Wonka explains that they must go up before they can go down; they must gather as much height as possible so that their fall to earth will allow them to crash back through the factory’s roof. This doesn’t calm the Buckets. Grandma Georgina angrily grabs Wonka, expressing her anger at his dangerous plan, just as Wonka is about to press the green button that will send the elevator back down to the earth.