An 11 year-old boy moves with his parents who have been evicted from a family farm in Wisconsin to live near his maternal grandparents in central Illinois. There, he discovers abandoned mine shafts which he explores with his grandfather''s dog that suffers from flatulence. A stranger in town, the narrator is keenly aware of his outsider status and takes refuge in family, the dog, and his secret place in one of the abandoned coal mine shafts cut into the bank of the river bottoms under his grandparent''s house. His acumen as an explorer comes in handy when another student--son of the local banker--goes missing.