It is 1967 and the war in Vietnam dominates the American news. Jack Wicher is a 12 year old genius living in a Virginia suburb pining after Maya, the rich girl at school. Alienated and misunderstood by his family, Jack lives in the house that the rest of the neighbourhood avoids. However, he finds a mentor in Mr Gladstein, the town's jeweller and lone Jew, who aides and abets Jack in his scheme to win Maya's heart and offers reassurance to the lonely boy who must fight to overcome not just the town's prejudices about his family but his own.