Seth Drew, a high school student from Washington, DC, learns how a good idea can take you places you never imagined and bond you to people you otherwise would never have met. After an independent science project leads Seth to design a patent-pending product to improve the four-wheel-drive of certain vehicles, he travels to Africa to install and test his invention in real-world conditions. Seth is accompanied by a Ugandan journalist who believes such an invention could improve the lives of people in rural villages, who can be cut off from main routes by impassable mud tracks during the rainy seasons. Seth confronts mechanical challenges, but more importantly, he experiences African life close up and gains a deeper understanding of the developing world.