Stanley Yelnats IV is falsely accused of stealing Clyde 'Sweet Feet' Livingston's shoe donation to a local orphanage and will either go to jail or 'Camp Green Lake.' Stanley chooses Green Lake, where he is forced to dig large holes in the desert each day, by order of the mysterious Warden and her assistants Mr. Sir and Mr. Pendanski. But what the Warden is really trying to do is find a buried treasure that was cracked murderer Kissin' Kate Barlow's fortune long ago. But when Stanley and his friend Zero escape, things get really bad.