Wentworth, Ohio: a small friendly town where the Carver children bicker over sweets in the E-Z shop and writer Johnny Marinville is the only resident who minds his own business.

On Poplar Street, apart from the impending storm, it's just a normal summer's day - with frisbees flying, law mowers humming and barbeques grilling. As the paperboy makes his round, he is unaware of the chrome red van idling up the hill.

Soon the residents will be caught up in a game of wills as the regulators arrive in force to face a child whose powers of expression are just awakening...