Sophia "Soap" Lazarchek is starting to realize that not all of life's problems can be solved with robots. At only sixteen, she's been shipped off to a special school for the "college experience," which evidently includes eating cold pizza for breakfast, trying not to make a fool of herself on a date, and occasionally defending the world from doomsday machines. Soap attends the Mechanical Science Institute—better known as the Mad Science Institute—where she and her fellow students are accustomed to being feared and misunderstood. The world simply isn't ready to know about their antimatter reactors, dangerous devices, or even their pet videogame-playing lizard-monster.

When an old enemy steals a prehistoric bioweapon capable of enslaving the planet, the Institute students must find a way to put aside their differences to combat an international terrorist organization. All their hopes rest with Soap, but she must search for the courage to face down her own, personal nightmare before it infects everyone she's ever loved.