Timothy Martin, who lives in present-day Elmira, New York, views the outdoors as merely a place between climate-conditioned buildings. Accompanying his father on a week-long camping trip in the Adirondacks on the Independence River not only scares him, but irritates him as well. This trip is something his brother would enjoy, but he is not his brother and his father will not accept Timothy for what he is: a nonathletic, quiet, private individual, who prefers a Big Mac over freshly caught fried fish, and a motel over a tent.

While camping with his father, Timothy finds the air in the tent suffocating, the unidentified night noises terrifying, and he wishes he were back in his own room, staring at the familiar lines and cracks in the ceiling. Later, injured and lost in the wilderness, Timothy wishes for the zippered comfort of his sleeping bag and a tent above...