The story begins with Stanley Yelnats, a young boy from a family cursed with bad luck. He is wrongly accused of stealing a pair of sneakers that once belonged to a famous baseball player and is sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention facility. Despite the name, Camp Green Lake is neither green nor has a lake, but instead, it’s a desert where the boys are forced to dig holes under the eye of the Warden.
At the camp, Stanley befriends a group of boys, each with their own nickname. They are X-Ray, Armpit, Zigzag, and Zero. The daily task of digging holes under the scorching sun is physically demanding and served a purpose that the boys don’t fully understand. As Stanley works his way through life at the camp, he learns about the rankins among the boys and the harsh rules they must follow.
As the boys dig holes day after day, the author combines Stanley’s present with the history of his family. Generations ago, his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather was cursed by a fortune teller named Madame Zeroni after breaking a promise to carry her up a mountain. The curse seems to have followed the Yelnats ever since. Stanley’s family history and the curse play a significant role in his experiences at the camp, connecting the past to the present in unexpected ways.
Stanley forms a close bond with Zero, a silent boy who is often underestimated by others. Stanley teaches Zero to read, and Zero shares his own history. One day, Zero runs away from the camp after smashing an adult’s face with a shovel, and Stanley goes after him, facing challenges such as dehydration, exhaustion, and danger. As they journey deeper into the desert, they discover “sploosh,” a drink that kept them alive. They journeyed up a mountain, where they found wild, raw onions that kept them hydrated.
Stanley and Zero eventually go back to the camp to dig for a treasure. They dug out a hidden treasure that connected to the past. The treasure was tied to the Warden’s quest to find something valuable buried in the desert. The truth behind the purpose of the holes and the Warden’s motivations is revealed, bringing the different threads of the story together. However, the Warden was unable to take it because the treasure had Stanley’s name on it, and it was of his possession.
