A sudden, unexpected rain interrupts Athena's excursion plans, shaking her trust in weather forecasts.

Mr. Archimedes, her neighbor, a mathematics professor at the university, takes it upon himself to explain the difficulties in weather prediction by placing climate in a broader category of phenomena characterized as chaotic. Thus begins a series of meetings during which the young student is introduced to the secrets of complexity, a relatively new field of knowledge that combines mathematics with the physical and social sciences in an effort to interpret phenomena that traditional wisdom struggles to explore.

While conversing with the elderly professor, Athena and her friends will encounter concepts such as self-similarity, fractals, fractional dimensions, strange attractors, and will understand how all of these are intertwined in the functioning of our body, in plant growth, in the formation of coastlines, and in the shape of clouds.

They will discover how exotic names like the Mandelbrot set, the von Koch snowflake, the Hilbert curve, and Cantor dust not only represent shapes of unparalleled aesthetics but also relate to compression, transmission, and enhancement of images, to the creation of cinematic effects, and even to the prevention of serious diseases.