In a small Iowa town in 1952, eleven-year-old Charlie Nebraska, whose father died in the Korean War, learns the meaning of both racism and heroism when he befriends Luther Peale, a young man who once played for the old Negro Baseball League.
Fourteen-year-old rivals Boot Quinn and Mick Sullivan, in one fight too many, are sent to the new principal who devises the punishment of having to play games together at his office, where they learn which battles are worth fighting.
Having reluctantly agreed to run for sixth-grade president, Jerry, who has been trying to change his image as a dork, finds his opponent playing dirty tricks on him.
