Stanley Yelnats has bad luck (which is all because of his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather). When Stanley's bad luck unfairly lands him in the juvenile detention centre Camp Green Lake (a very weird place that isn't green and doesn't have a lake), he and his campmates Zero, X-Ray, Armpit, Squid, Magnet and Zigzag are forced to dig holes in order to build character. But what are they really digging for?