Aspiring inventor Flint Lockwood lives with his widowed father Tim and his pet monkey Steve in Swallow Falls, an island in the Atlantic Ocean. The island’s economy is entirely based on sardine sales, which have plummeted due to the rest of the world deciding the fish are “super-gross”, leaving Swallow Falls residents to eat all the sardines themselves. Flint invents the “Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator”, a device that transforms water into food, in an effort to expand the town’s diet. He knocks out his house’s power when he attempts to plug in the new device, annoying Tim, who wishes Flint would give up inventing and take over the family bait-and-tackle business.