A fourteen-year-old boy signs up for his first job during the early days of World War II, spending two summers helping his grandfather at a boathouse on American Lake. His salary is $40 per month plus free room and board in a shack on the dock, but the perks include: a girl on a diving board, the canines Chubby and Butch, a deaf Scotsman, a commando raid, men like Shorty and The Ironmonger, and a broken-armed soldier with a shirt full of Lincoln-head dollars. Learning about the world (and the fish that live in it), the boy forms a life-long connection to the big, beautiful lake.