T.S. Spivet lives with his parents, sister Gracie and brother Layton in a remote ranch in Montana. A little boy with a gift and a passion for science, he invents the machine of perpetual movement, which earns him the highly prestigious Baird Award from the Smithsonian Museum in Washington.
After leaving a note to his family, he sets out alone to pick up the award, crossing the United States on a freight train.
But no one in Washington ever imagined that the lucky winner is only ten years old and that he is hiding a very dark secret...