A recent transfer from Montana to Florida’s Trace Middle School, Roy—his name derives from a word for “king”—gets involved in Mullet Fingers’s campaign to save a colony of owls from death at a construction project. Because his father’s government job moves around, Roy has changed schools six times, and he must start over constantly, making new friends and suffering assaults from bullies. He misses his previous state, Montana, but he begins to appreciate the beauties of his new home. He also makes friends with Mullet and his sister, Beatrice, and learns from them a certain toughness and daring that serves him well as the story progresses.

Roy is the story’s chief protagonist. He shows resolve, courage, and ingenuity in the face of threats from Dana the bully and from the authorities who protect the Mother Paula’s restaurant plans. Roy finds that he can solve problems by outthinking his opponents and turning the tables on them.

So-named by his stepsister for his ability to catch mullet fish with his bare hands, Mullet Fingers—his real name is Napoleon Bridger Leep—is the mysterious boy whose fleet-footed dashes across town, mysterious hideouts, and resistance campaign to stop the Mother Paula’s restaurant construction from killing a colony of owls, capture Roy’s imagination.