Instead of watching the Chicago White Sox play in Comiskey Park as he had planned, Matthew Morrison is spending the summer of 1944 in Omaha, Texas, with his grandparents. What could be worse? Matt thinks his summer is ruined. Then he meets Joshua who has an answer for just about everything, and can ride Grandpa's mules bareback. Throw in two brothers who are looking for trouble, a visit from Texas Rangers, a tornado, and a run-in with rustlers, and Matt's summer is well on the way to being more exciting than a baseball game in the park. The cast is rounded out with two dogs, a belligerent rooster named Roscoe, a rabid fox, and a group of local boys who are looking forward to the Watermelon Festival in nearby Naples, Texas. By the end of the summer, Matt decides watching a baseball game is fine, but nothing beats roaming the northeast Texas countryside for adventure and excitement.