Mason Buttle is the biggest, sweatiest kid in his grade, and everyone knows he can barely read or write. Masons learning disabilities are compounded by grief. Fifteen months ago, Masons best friend, Benny Kilmartin, turned up dead in the Buttle familys orchard. An investigation drags on, and Mason, honest as the day is long, cant understand why Lieutenant Baird wont believe the story Mason has told about that day.