Fifteen-year-old Cuss Brewster is not a criminal. Well, maybe a slight criminal in the state of New York where he accidentally burns down his neighbor's barn. It's not his first fire-related mishap, so a judge tells Cuss, "Behave for the next six months, or you'll go to jail." But for Cuss, behaving is a lot harder than it seems. Trouble hounds him. He rescues children from a church fire, only to have the authorities accuse him of starting the fire. While working at a landscaping job, he forgets to follow instructions and winds ups smashing a client's bay window. The grumpy client threatens to sue. Then, a mere two weeks before his probation hearing, Cuss confuses the brake and gas pedals on someone's vintage Porsche and crashes the car through garage doors. Cuss can almost taste prison food....