Ten-year-old Henry Stone's world has been turned upside down. Sent to Indiana for the summer to be with his grandma Martha while his parents work on their troubled marriage, Henry realizes on his first day that the summer is going to be a bust. There are no kids around, his grandmother treats him like a kindergartner, he has to waste his time at her jewelry shop with her child-allergic watch repair man, and most difficult of all, his beloved grandpa Jay has recently died. Henry just can't imagine having fun without him.

But hope can come from the most unexpected of sources. For Henry, that source is Mr. Fine, an older neighbor struggling with serious problems of his own. The friendship that Henry and Mr. Fine find together proves to be a surprising treasure for them both.