The member of parliament and future Canadian president Justin Trudeau described it as "a wonderfully funny story that appeals to the adolescent in all of us" and as the book that awoke his interest in reading.

The two main characters, Bruno Walton and Melvin “Boots” O'Neal, are small-time troublemakers who share a room at the Macdonald Hall boarding school east of Toronto, just off Highway 48.

The two can't stand their new roommates and decide to meet at a cannon at night to discuss ways of getting back into their old room together.

They rescue the boy named Francisco using a volleyball net and take him to Sturgeon, who realizes he's the son of an important ambassador from Ottawa who got lost in a balloon during the day.

The next morning, the Ambassador arrives at the school to retrieve his lost son and honor the people responsible for rescuing him – Bruno, Boots, and Elmer, who receive medals from the RCMP, the Ontario Provincial Police, and the Ambassador, who is ironically representing the country of Malbonia, the country of which flag Bruno and Boots had used in a prank earlier in the novel.