A tree full of monkeys is the last thing fourteen-year-old Jay Berry Lee expects to find on one of his treks through Oklahoma's Cherokee Ozarks. Jay learns from his grandfather that the monkeys have escaped from a circus and there's a big reward for the person who finds them. Jay knows how much his family needs the money, and he's determined to catch the monkeys. It's a summer of thrills and danger that no one will ever forget.