Howard Boward, a 13-year-old boy-genius with a chip on his shoulder is too smart for his own good. He has troubles making friendsтАФpossibly because he complains so much. Until one day a science experiment goes haywire, and Howard creates a best friend for himselfтАФFranklinтАФwho also happens to be a monster. Creating Franklin was an accident, not like Howard was playing God or anythingтАФor so Howard tells himself. Franklin and Howard are having so much fun, Howard decides to create more тАЬfriends,тАЭ using DNA from kids at school. Only, these friends arenтАЩt quite as friendly. Soon thereтАЩs a major mess and Howard has to sort it all out before the monsters destroy their human counterparts. But terminating the monsters proves harder than he imagined. They didnтАЩt choose to be monsters; they canтАЩt go against their innate nature. Howard finds himself facing consequences for playing God. Getting rid of the monsters means learning to tame his own inner beast, and Howard begins to understand the meaning of free will and true friendship