An eager 12 year old boy and his friends race to secretly travel back in time in the hopes of unraveling the mystery surrounding his mother's untimely death before the rightful owner of the machine realizes it's gone missing.

Genius hacker Connor discovers Cicada 3301, an online treasure hunt that could be a recruiting tool for a secret society. Soon Conner, art-expert friend Avi, and secretive librarian Gwen are dashing from graffiti sites to ancient libraries to uncover real-world clues. But they must outrun aggressive NSA agents, also hot on the trail of Cicada, who want the glory for themselves.