dr. shrinker (jay robinson) is a mad scientist who creates a shrink ray that can miniaturise anything. three young adults — brad fulton (ted eccles), b.j. masterson (susan lawrence) and her brother gordie masterson (jeff mackay) — crash land their airplane on an island. as they make their way to the only house on the island, they meet dr. shrinker and his assistant, hugo (billy barty). dr. shrinker, in an effort to prove that his shrinking ray works, shrinks the three people down to tall. the remainder of the series was different efforts by the 'shrinkies' to return to normal size, while dr. shrinker and hugo want to catch the trio so that they will have physical proof that the ray works for whatever world power wants to buy it. dr. shrinker also implied that he would give the unnamed buyer the shrinkies as a free bonus. however, in one episode, dr. shrinker's plan was to sell the shrink ray to the highest bidder, and the second highest bidder would receive the shrinkies.