Stanley Yelnats blames his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-great-grandfather, who famously cursed his family line with terrible luck. Wrongly accused of theft, he is given two options: juvenile detention or Camp Green Lake, which he soon finds out is not at all green and has not had a lake in a very long time. At Camp Green Lake boys dig five foot holes in the sweltering Texas sun every day in order to become good again. But as Stanley watches the mysterious Warden and her entourage of brutal camp counselors, he begins to suspect otherwise. Holes blends together storylines into one bizarre and gripping narrative, one of female outlaws and cursed relatives and oddly shaped mountains- and lots of lizards.