IP assumes that a system is attached to some local network. We assume that the system can send packets to any other system on its own network. The problem comes when a system is asked to send a packet to a system on a different network. This problem is handled by gateways. A gateway is a system that connects a network with one or more other networks.
Gateways are often normal computers that happen to have more than one network interface.
For example, we have a Unix machine that has two different Ethernet interfaces. Thus it is connected to networks 128.6.4 and 128.6.3. This machine can act as a gateway between those two networks. The software on that machine must be set up so that it will forward packets from one network to the other. That is, if a machine on network 128.6.4 sends a packet to the gateway, and the packet is addressed to a machine on network 128.6.3, the gateway will forward the packet to the destination.