"When I was young, I wanted to be a paleontologist, to unearth things both terrifying and long dead. I suppose this [story] is not very different...."

This darkly comic tale of science, family, and love tells the story of John Chant, a brilliant and lonely boy whose childhood adventures entangle him with dinosaurs, a robot, an alien astronaut, a particle accelerator, giant monsters, quantum superposition, family dysfunction, and animal experimentation. After exile and many swerves, he ends up a professor of physics among a cast of eccentric academics and in charge of a nuclear reactor. His story includes quantum mechanics, omelets, bullies, mathematics, childhood crushes, faculty meetings, terrible bosses, grief, failure, zydeco, radioactivity, and kindness from unexpected places. Through it all John explores the fantastical mysteries of the universe, including the biggest mystery of all: love.