With the universe in desperate peril after the United States's own defense system becomes a doomsday machine, the job of saving the universe falls to bar owner Jake Stonebender, his wife, Zoey, and their superintelligent toddler, Erin. Not to mention Jake's patrons: two dozen busloads of ex-hippies, Robert Heinlein's wandering cat, and a misunderstood genius-inventor.