For years, the government has been relocating the world's geniuses (and their families) to the picturesque Pacific Northwest town of Eureka, where daily life straddles the line between unprecedented innovation and total chaos. U.S. Marshal Jack Carter finds this out firsthand when he wrecks his car and becomes stranded there. After the town's eccentric inhabitants unleash a scientific creation still unknown to the outside world, Carter steps in to restore order and consequently is let in on one of our country's best-kept secrets. From unrequited love to professional jealousy, from addiction to depression, the problems of Eureka's townsfolk grow from the myriad of life's everyday challenges. But with the population's unique talents, troubled psyches and limitless resources, these small-town concerns have a way of becoming big-time problems. It is at that intersection, where human frailty and super-science collide, that Eureka begins.