Meet Ry. He is off on a train to summer camp when he reads a letter that came a few days ago. The letter says not to come to camp. When he gets off the train to call his grandfather, the train leaves him with his backpack of belongings still on the train! Ry's luck goes from bad to worse to much worse throughout this book making the situations seem (almost) comical. Ry believes that maybe his luck is getting better when he hitchhikes and a man named Del stops to pick him up. Just as fast as good luck comes upon Ry, bad luck returns when Del's car stalls. The journey that Ry makes through the course of this book is amazingly easy-as easy as falling off the face of the earth, that is.