This is a seasonal book, starting with spring and returning to spring, during which, three boys, living in an orphanage home in southern Norway during the late 1940's, learn the value of work and play as they do chores on the farm that is part of the home and go to school. And when one of them is drawn to the character of an older, carefree, scheming boy who lives with his father outside the home, he, in more than one incident, finds himself duped by the boy, and schemes to get back at him.