David can't believe his luck when a worn wooden canoe mysteriously appears on the banks of the River Say behind his house. With summer stretching endlessly before him, it seems too good to be true.

Soon there is another boy--Adam, the Minnow's rightful owner. Adam wants his boat back...but something else, too: a trustworthy friend to help him find the long lost ancestral jewels that could save his family from financial disaster

Can two boys find what history has kept an untouchable secret for hundreds of years? Or will they lose the race against time and against another treasure seeker lurking at the river's edge.