I'm sorry that you may have no idea what is going on. I'll explain it for you: Arthur, a 13-year-old, has been sentenced to Juvie for throwing a brick at the Junk Man's head, in an attempt to kill him. The judge accused Arthur for throwing the brick at the man because he was black. (The book takes place in the mid 1900's.) Arthur's dad has died, and Arthur threw the brick because the Junk Man, or Mr. Hampton, was wearing Arthur's dad's hat. The Junk Man goes around through people's garbage looking for things that people have thrown out. Arthur's sentence is to work for the junk man for 4 hours every Saturday until 120 hours are achieved. He musts find the seven most important things: realizing that the junk man's job is more reasonable than you might think.