Camp Green Lake is a juvenile detention center for boys in Texas. But there is no lake there. The boys spend each day digging five-foot holes in the dry lake bed. Stanley Yelnats, (yelnats is actually spelled Stanley backwards), a boy who always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is sent there for stealing a pair of used sneakers that belonged to a famous baseball player. The sneakers had actually fallen off an overpass and landed on Stanley's head. Stanley believes his bad luck is due to a curse placed on his family after his great-great-grandfather, Elya Yelnats, stole a pig from a gypsy woman, Madame Zeroni. When Elya Yelnats was fifteen years old, he was in love with an empty-headed girl. Madame Zeroni gave Elya a piglet to raise so that he could win the girl's hand by giving her father a fat pig. In exchange, Elya promised to take Madame Zeroni to a mountain to drink “where the water rises.” When the girl chooses not to marry Elya, he is so distraught that he takes a ship to America, forgetting his promise to Madame Zeroni. Since then, the Yelnats family has had no luck. At Camp Green Lake, Stanley receives the nickname "Caveman", showing that for the first time in his life, Stanley is accepted by a peer group. He becomes stronger and more enduring as he faces the harsh conditions of the camp, digging in the desert heat. He befriends a boy named Zero by agreeing to teach him to read in exchange for help with digging. This upsets the other boys and causes a fight. In the aftermath, Zero hits an advisor with a shovel and flees into the desert. It is assumed that Zero will die there and no one will care. His files are destroyed. Deciding to help his friend, Stanley steals a fuel truck and goes after Zero. He drives the truck into a hole, gets out of the truck and runs away. He crosses the desert toward a rock that resembles "God's thumb," the place where his grandfather, the original Stanley Yelnats, survived after being robbed by Kissin' Kate Barlow. One hundred and ten years ago, Green Lake was a beautiful place. where Katherine Barlow taught school. She fell in love with Sam, the onion seller who sold onions as food and medicine in the town..