Stanley Yelnats has been unjustly send to a boys'detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day, digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes.
It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize there's more going on at Camp Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. But what of importance could be buried under a dried-up lake?