The Reacher family is constantly moving from base to base, and at each new assignment teen brothers Joe and Jack Reacher have to prove themselves to the teens wanting to establish a pecking order. Thirteen-year-old Jack Reacher is itching for a fight but has to help his father, accused of losing a code book, and Joe, accused of cheating on a placement test when his mother is called away to her dying father. Using his powers of observation and a girl he meets gives the reader a prelude to the successful military policeman he will later become.