Mark Chelmsley IV has never felt truly at home anywhere. With only four months left in the fifth grade before he starts at an exclusive boarding school, Mark doesn't think it's even worth trying to settle in. What changes his mind is a Week in the Woods- the annual school camping trip. But even there, things go wrong. Mark covers for a friend and lands himself in Big Trouble: his nemesis, science teacher Mr. Maxwell, suspnds him. Just as Mr. Maxwell is about take Mark home, Mark runs off into the woods, putting his survival skills- and Mr. Maxwell's- to the test.