Lewis is a young genius inventor who lives at an orphanage and makes inventions that constantly scare off would-be adoptive parents. One day, deciding his biological mother is the only one who loves him, he builds a memory machine to locate her, and keeps his room mate, Michael "Goob" Yagoobian awake all night causing him to fall asleep during a Little League Game. Taking his invention to the school science fair, he meets Wilbur Robinson, a time cop claiming to be from the future. He takes Lewis to the year 2037 only to discover that Wilbur is his son and his own time machine was stolen by a grown up Goon, after his game loss 30 years ago caused him to become depressed and bitter. Lewis, key to getting back to his own time and restoring the future version of his dysfunctional family is to get the time machine back.