Some glad morning, I'll fly away. Who cares if he's "gifted." Roland Tanner wants to escape his life. He's stuck in a broken-down trailer in the hills with his family, the sorriest characters he's ever met. At his new middle school, his classmates only see him as a hillbilly. He has a secret crush on Patty, but so does his friend Hassan, the new kid from Iran. But then comes the Iranian hostage crisis...