Lacey Patterson is thirteen years old, and her life in the tiny desert town of Alice, Nevada is boring and predictable. For her and her friends Kenny and Charlie, it's looking like another summer of washing dishes, fixing irrigation pipes and poking sticks at armadillos...

Until they make an exciting - and dangerous - discovery.

Lacey's stumbled across a crate filled with surplus military rockets. So she and Kenny have decided to do what any kid would do... build a rocket powered car on the outskirts of town. Of course, they know nothing about cars, and have no way to move the rockets. Oh, and they'll probably get killed in the process.

Luckily, Kenny's delinquent older sister Darlene does know cars, and she has a pickup. So they scrounge for small change to keep her in hush money, and she helps them steal parts and tools.

With enough duct tape and baling wire, and a healthy dose of not-knowing-any-better, they're bent on making this a summer to remember... if they can just stay alive long enough to enjoy it.