As a boys-versus-girls war of practical jokes escalates in his third-grade classroom, Robert finds it difficult to ask a girl's help in learning to dance in time for a family wedding reception.
As Christmas approaches, Caroline Malloy continues the feud between her sisters and the Hatford brothers by making Wally Hatford be her partner for a special project at school.
Disgusted that a family with three girls moves into the house across the river, nine-year-old Wally and his three brothers declare a practical joke war on the girls.
The Benson boys return to Buckman for spring vacation and concoct a prank involving a non-existent ghost, continuing the practical joke war between the Hatford boys and the Malloy girls.