A group of boys in a small Illinois town narrate their summer exploits after befriending a scruffy newcomer and a stuttering parrot from a parrot shop. Their curiosity propels a series of comic and suspenseful episodes—an escaped bird, mysterious theft, eerie hints of voodoo and haunting, a vanished townsman, and an empty grave—that draw the gang into sleuthing and narrow escapes. The story balances humor and mild suspense as the youths follow clues, confront a burglar, and ultimately piece together how the parrot and local oddities connect to the crimes and strange events.