When seventeen-year-old Billy loses his dilapidated baseball glove, the disabled, neighborhood dropout, Rodney Drake, finds and keeps it. In his pursuit to retrieve the glove, Billy witnesses the strength of Rodney's pitching arm and concocts a plan to pursue his vision of grandeur by exploiting Rodney's talent. Billy befriends Rodney and naively embarks on a mission to turn the petty thief into a professional baseball player and thereby impress the girl of his dreams. In appreciation for Billy taking Rodney under his wing, Rodney's peculiar, old-fashioned parents bequeath Billy a portion of their estate. When a catastrophe strikes his protege's world, Billy must solve a mystery if he is to reap the benefits of his inheritance. With the help of his clique of ostracized friends-a twenty-something-year-old little person, a sixty-something-year-old deaf ex-G-man, and a crippled classmate-Billy tries to make sense of what has occurred. At every turn, he rearranges his priorities. Does he seek an inheritance, recognition for ambitious accomplishments, the girl of his dreams, or loyal friendship?