Not yet a man, no longer a boy, twelve-year-old Miguel Chavez wants to be recognized as being responsible and mature, but, most of all, to be included in the group of men who take the sheep up to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains for the summer.

Andy is friends with Onion John who lives in a pile of rocks and eats what he can find at the dump. Everything changes when Andy's dad tries to change Onion John.