David Fuller's only best friend Kenny Finney is a smelley outcast who can't read or write, steals, lives in a gravel pit trailer home, and gets caught by the cops all the time. But he plays the best game of street hockey ever, and can face any ghost in the coastal community of Brookens. One day, David's life changes, and he says goodbye to Kenny Finney and the carefree life he's known. His parents are moving to a better life, and want him away from the "unsuitable" Finneys. There is no room in their plans for a snot-nosed juvenile delinquent who is nothing only a bad influence. David has to "shape up" and forget there ever was a Kenny Finney, or collecting spiders in a bottle, or the half-finished, now lonely clubhouse leaning forlornly into the yard. Through the glistening greenbelt and organized sports of his city home, all he can see are the memories of the good times left behind. Then, tragedy strikes. Kenny's house out in Brookens burns down, and most of his family are dead. No one knows where Kenny is, and no one cares, Until a determined, 12-year-old boy, with pain and hope in his heart, takes it upon himself to travel, hundreds of miles ALONE, to find the street kid nobody wanted, and whose tragic plight awakens a startling awareness.