The aims of this Feature Article are to show how simple or complex isothermal autocatalytic reactions can give rise to oscillatory behavior by considering virtually the simplest possible example (A + 2B 3B; B C) under the simplest and most readily realizable of circumstances (cstr). Although this is only a two-dimensional scheme it vividly and clearly represents all the key aspects of many real systems, including the birth, growth, and extinction of stable oscillations. Moreover, it is a “robust” model and it does not collapse when reversibility and parallel alternative routes are added. In the recent past, mathematical schemes have usually been either too elaborate to be understood or have failed to satisfy such basic requirements as the principle of detailed balance. Yet other models have failed to conserve mass or have not represented stable oscillations. Such fatal flaws are absent not only from this prototype but also from its comparison (A + B 2B; B C saturating). The springs of chaotic behavior in deterministic chemical models are also touched on, but it should be noted that real cstr must fall short of perfect homogeneity and that there may still be a gap between expectation and experimental proof of chaos.