T.S. Spivet lives on a remote ranch in Montana with his parents, sister Gracie and brother Layton. A gifted child with a passion for science, he has invented a perpetual motion machine for which he has been awarded the prestigious Baird Prize by the Smithsonian Institute in Washington. He leaves a note for his family and travels by freight train across the United States to receive his prize. At the Institute no-one had suspected the lucky winner was a 10 year-old child.