The land of West Canvia is thick with the tension of war. Spies and hit-and-run insurgents roam the streets. Knox Wallingford dreams of being a scientist and inventor like his idol Thomas Riley. While his parents are away fighting in a war, Knox's not-so-perfect mechanical inclination runs him into a new friend, Lizzy Strauss, another unlikely student of science and technology. When they witness a would-be kidnapping, they rush to the rescue, using their wits and budding scientific prowess to thwart the attack. But this is just the beginning. Knox and Lizzy are given a mysterious key to a laboratory with untold devises and scientific knowledge. Pursued by a strange man, they have to keep the laboratory's secrets safe before they fall into the wrong hands.