Jess’s childhood is spent peacefully on a farm in the mountains of North Carolina with his parents and grandmother. Every so often his life is happily interrupted by visits from his eccentric relatives, such as his womanizing uncle Luden who sought fortune in California, his uncle Zeno and his endless stories, his volatile uncle Gurton and his impressive beard, the country singer Samantha Barefoot, and his uncle Runkin, who travels with his coffin in search of the perfect epitaph. But his life is also altered with the arrival of Johnson Gibbs, an orphaned teenager who the family hires as a farmhand, and who joins him in his mischief. La infancia de Jess transcurre apaciblemente junto a sus padres y su abuela en una granja de las montañas de Carolina del Norte. De vez en cuando su vida se ve alegremente alterada con las visitas de excéntricos parientes como su mujeriego tío Luden que buscó fortuna en California, su tío Zeno y sus cuentos interminables, su volátil tío Gurton y su impresionante barba, la cantante de country Samantha Barefoot y su tío Runkin, quien viajaba con su ataúd buscando la frase perfecta para su epitafio. Pero su vida también es alterada con la llegada de Johnson Gibbs, un adolescente huérfano que contratan como bracero, a quien secundará de inmediato en sus travesuras.