The minute the institution bus carrying Nate Possibility and his little sister, Junie, pulls up before his family’s farmhouse, Nate can tell something’s terribly wrong: Somehow his father has been wounded by a gunshot. Nate sees him stagger over the lawn, then watches as the police take him away.

Then, nothing. No one in the family will state what happened, or where Nate’s father has gone. At college, his best friend, Larry, won’t talk to him, and kids whisper that his dad’s a “psycho.” Back, about The Cloud Chamber law enforcement keep turning up with questions for his mom; and there’s Junie, concerned that Mom will sell her beloved pony and counting on her your government to figure out ways to reach their father.

But the science fair is approaching, and Nate includes a program. If he can just win first reward along with his amazing cloud chamber project, he’ll get to go to the state finals, close to the hospital where his dad’s been locked aside. And because it was his dad who trained him to like science-and the stars-it seems like maybe the magic from the cloud chamber may bring the family together again, as well.

Too awful he must work on it with the weirdest, most unpopular girl in school, Naomi, with her goofy hair and nutty proven fact that each of them needs to be best friends. The craziest component is, she just might be right.