During the Great Depression, Martin, a 12-year-old only child and resident of Nashville, Tennessee, has lost his father to polio and his mother has become overbearing. She hires a World War One veteran, Seth, to dig up a section of hedge in order to clear the way for a driveway she wants to put in on her property.

Unbeknownst to her, Seth suffers mental illness from his experiences during the war. When he harms Martin's beloved dog Fritz and drives the pet away, the boy has had enough loss and vows to get his pal back.

He goes against his mother's wishes and sets out to find Fritz, an odyssey that takes him into dangerous, unfamiliar territory close to home. Searching along the creek that runs through the local woods, he finds a community of hoboes has cropped up in a small valley.

No ordinary hobo camp, this one is run by a power-hungry man named Rex. The hoboes are mostly World War One veterans dissatisfied with the way the U.S. government treated them during and after the war. Under Rex's command, they form an insurgent group wanting to take over the United States of America. To subsist, they rob local farms and households. Yet their true goal is to find a mysterious cache of futuristic weapons and technology hidden in a place referred to only as the Will'ven't Bin.

Trying to steer clear of them, Martin runs into Seth. He seems regretful about mistreating Fritz and offers to help find the dog in return for Martin's help finding the Will'ven't Bin.

In answering Martin's questions about the Bin, Seth says, "Rex tells us that once we have enough people and what's in the Will'ven't Bin, we'll be able to take over and give Americans a better life. I believed all that tommyrot until I couldn't any longer. I was part of Rex's community until they killed a friend of mine, a black man who saved my life during the war. I left. Now, I want to stop him."

Can a boy of twelve and a mentally ill veteran do anything against such organized crime?