FBI agent Olivia has assembled a task force to investigate The Pattern - a mysterious sequence of unexplained phenomena suggestive of someone or something performing experiments on the world. With the help of mad genius Walter Bishop and his estranged son Peter, she aims to bring high-tech criminals to justice, while defusing previously unimaginable threats to national security.

As the neglected son of a real-life mad scientist, Peter set out to make himself as different from his father as he could. A college drop-out, but also intuitive mathematician, Peter is a jack-of-all-trades who has held every imaginable job from bouncer to biochemical engineer. Against his better judgment, Peter now finds himself following in his father's dangerous footsteps - while assisting a government agency that holds a file containing information about his own possible criminal activity.

Once hailed as one of the most brilliant scientific minds of his generation, Walter's groundbreaking work with lab partner William Bell propelled him into an undisclosed relationship with the U.S. government to advance its most scientifically innovative - and ethically questionable - research projects. Now, Walter supplies the scientific genius and technological wizardry needed to explore The Pattern - a series of events that often trace back to Walter's own scientific explorations. Sadly, his shattered memory can only tell him fragments of the real story.