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In this story, written by John Grisham, the eleven-year old Mark Sway unwillingly makes the acquaintance of a Mafia - lawyer. The man, before killing himself, tells Mark where a "hot" body is buried. His client, a killer of the Mafia, shot a US senator and hid the body. Only the lawyer knows where it is hidden and fears that the killer would also want to murder him, now that he knows everything. On the other hand, also after him is the FBI, who need the body for their investigation, they already know that his client is the killer. But as the American law says: no body - no trial. And, what makes the matter even worse, the FBI is already laughed into the face by the public. So they need the body like nothing else in the world. Before committing suicide he talks to know Mark, who is out in the woods together with his younger brother Ricky, who is nine years old. The lawyer had seen Mark crawling around in the woods and watching him, even taking the hose out of the car's exhaust pipe. He grabs him and tells him that he wants Mark to die together with him. When Mark does not stop asking for the cause of his suicide and his own death he starts to tell him his the story. Now he wants to shoot himself after Mark - that is why talks so openly with him, telling Mark also where the body is hidden. But Mark is able to escape out of the, meanwhile heavily drunk lawyer's car. Before he and his brother manage to leave the scene, the lawyer stumbles out of his car, screaming, and then he finally shoots himself, putting the gun into his mouth.
The two boys run off home where Mark calls the police. Ricky, however faints, and after these traumatic views goes into a strange kind of coma, often seen with kids under shock. The police soon arrives at the scene of crime and catches Mark, sneaking around and watching what is going on.
They soon find out that he had been the one who called the police and take him home, also a suspicious why he had not told his name when calling the police. By the time his mother has arrived home and is very concerned about Ricky's state of health. A policeman immediately calls the ambulance to take care of Ricky. When the officer drives together with Mark to the hospital where his mother and brother already are, he starts to ask strange questions. He has found some weak points in Mark's story and wants to crack the boy up. Mark, however, is a rather smart boy and manages to stay quiet, fearing that he could worsen the situation.
The policeman does not want to give up the story and soon also the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows up and starts to question the young boy.
But at the same time Mark already had an unpleasant meeting a with a Mafia killer, though he is able to flee in the last moment. The killer made it quite clear, however that if he talks, the Mafia would be after him and his family. So Mark remains silent. The FBI starts to put up more and more pressure, blackmailing the young boy also in illegal ways. Soon he does not know how to handle the situation anymore and decides to hire a lawyer. The only problem is that his mother lost her job while staying with Ricky at the hospital and so the family has no money at all. Soon also the trailer where they live is burned down by some men of the mob. So he starts to search for a lawyer who would help him for little money. But everywhere he is turned out, because being a kid, an unimportant young guy. Finally he comes into the office of Reggie Love, an ambitious elderly women who is ready to help him for the fee of one dollar. She does not really need money and studied law out of personal causes.
The lady turns out to be a very clever lawyer, succeeding in getting the upper hand over the FBI agents and also managing to end the pressure on Mark. The FBI is only ready to offer a Witness Protection Program if the body is really where Mark supposes it to be. In any other case they will not put him into the program but Mark fears that the Mafia would kill him sooner or later because he interfered with them.
They start to work out a way about how to make him tell without getting killed and finally the FBI simply sends Mark to prison. He is accused of holding back important information about a crime. Mark is able to escape from prison all on his own, always conscious that the Mafia would find him anywhere.
He calls up Reggie and they both go to Chicago under false identities to find out if the dead lawyer has told Mark the truth.
They know that the Mafia is not able to get the body at the moment because the hiding place is crowded with police, although they do not know that they are so close to their so intensely searched body. The "place" is the dead lawyer's house, where the body is buried under his boat.
In the middle of the night Reggie and Mark show up to check if the body is still there. They find it where it was supposed to be and Mark finally accepts the Witness Protection Program of the FBI, though he changes some decisions, not telling anyone what it will be. So in the end, he and his family leave to a secret place, not even Reggie knowing where they will go.
In this book, the Mafia is characterised as a crowd of morons, who are brutal but not clever at all. The FBI knows almost every step they will take and the Mafia lives in fear of the federals. Mark fears the Mafia because he considers them to be able to find him anywhere.
In the end he is not so sure about their abilities anymore and decides to reveal where their body is. The men of the Mafia are described as stupid, very simple people and the only thing they can do well is killing and scaring people, but even a smart eleven year-old boy is able to deal with them. In this book of John Grisham, also the political and social influences the Mafia exerts are rather lower than in other books and the only men who keep them out of prison are their lawyers who are so scared to death that they do not even realise anymore that the Mafia is just a bunch of incapable men.
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