Flint creates an invention to take out the garbage, but it soon starts deciding for itself what - and who - counts as garbage. Swallow Falls prepares to celebrate the birthday of its oldest sardine, a wish-granting fish named Johnny, but Flint and Sam put the entire event in jeopardy.

Flint and Sam reminisce about the first time they met, when they went head-to-head at the school science fair and nearly destroyed the town. Flint invents a way to make sardines taste like bacon so Sam can eat one without gagging, but Flint's invention has a few bacon-related side-effects.

When Tim is celebrated for accidentally inventing a pencil holder, Flint gets jealous and starts to doubt his own skills as an inventor. Flint begs Sam to let him see her most treasured possession, but when Sam relents Flint damages it and has to find a way to make it up to her.

When Steve wins the Swallow Falls lottery, townspeople line up claiming that they are Steve's best friend, causing Flint to question Steve's true affections. Flint and Sam babysit so they can buy a new board game, but when Brent hires them as his babysitter, they have to decide whether the humiliation is worth the reward.

Flint modifies Sam's weather-predicting orb to predict the future, but knowing their future isn't as fun as they thought it would be. Mayor Shelbourne brings a panda to Swallow Falls, but when the town falls under the panda's spell it's up to Flint and Sam to find out what's really going on.

Flint is excited to discover there's another inventor in town, but Sam suspects the inventor has an ulterior motive for befriending Flint. Unable to wake up on time in the morning, Flint combines an alarm with rooster DNA to create the ultimate alarm clock.