In 1899, ten-year-old Robbie, son of a preacher in a small Vermont town, gets himself into all kinds of trouble when he decides to give up being Christian in order to make the most of his life before the end of the world.
They were called drummer boys - the first to rouse the troops in the morning, the last to sound retreat in battle. Willie Johnston, a skinny boy from Vermont, was too young to enlist in the Union forces - he never should have taken part in the Civil War at all...
Soup's crazy plan to help his town's basketball team to victory includes constructing a musical instrument called a spitzentootle and snaring the evil Janice Riker in an unpleasant trap.