The year is 1891, and Waldo "W.B." Baron has just woken up to find his house flying--no, wait, floating?--floating a thousand feet above the ground. His inventor parents have transformed their house into a flying machine, which they've entered into a race around the country. Unfortunately for W.B. (who knows less about science than the average tapeworm), that means missing a show staring the hero of his favorite adventure novels, Sheriff Graham.

The incomparably klutzy W.B. gets his own taste of the Wild West when his family's flying house is hijacked by Rose Blackwood, the sister of Sheriff Graham's greatest nemesis, the vilest villain, the cruelest criminal, Benedict Blackwood. Rose forces the Barons to continue the race, so that she can steal the prize money and break her brother out of jail.

With the help of an unusually tiny friend and aided by a baffling interpretation of simple scientific concepts, W.B. is finally given the chance to be the hero, instead of the kid who reads about the hero while eating too much pie.