Curious children can discover how everyday things were invented in this literary mixture of fantasy and science. Fictional inventor Professor Dorothy Dabble sets off to London with Digby, her pet robot, to enter a competition for the best invention. Along the way they learn that the parachute was invented by Blanchard and his parachuting dog and that frisbees were created when workers at the Frisbie Baking Company threw their empty pie tins around. They discover many other amazing yet true stories about the weird ways objects, from ballpoint pens to velcro, were invented.