It's 1958, the year of seismic world changes--the Hungarian Revolution, Sputnik, Elvis Presley, and the New York Giants' departure from their home field at the old Polo Grounds--but the only thing on fifteen-year-old David Katz's mind is the summer he must spend at Camp Ararat, an Orthodox Jewish camp in the Poconos. Katz, a young movie buff, would rather spend his days inside cool, dark theatres. But his middle-class parents, having received a summer scholarship for their son, feel that David should learn more about his religion within the strict learning tradition that Camp Ararat can provide. Armed with personal charm, a healthy disrespect for authority, and a quick mind that can find answers to any dilemma within old movie memories, David leads a motley group of underachievers through the timeless dramas of adolescence.