A Junior Astronomer named Oliver White narrates this story. Oliver gets involved in the Comical Ironical Crime Ring one summer when he travels to “the touristy side of the island” with his father and twin sister, Molly (72). They have come because his father, a retired astronaut, wanted him to spend the summer star gazing on the beach.

However, while out one evening to observe the star Alcyone, he meets Raffy, Marta, and Petey. Raffy is a bully from Ollie’s school. He has roped Marta, and Petey, a mentally challenged man who vacations on the island every summer, into a plot to steal baby sea turtles when they hatch. This plot involves dressing Petey up in twinkling lights and tin foil so that the baby turtles get confused and follow him instead of the moon.

When they meet, Ollie is worried as Raffy routinely bullies him and the rest of the Sci-Fi/Fantasy Club—although all of the girls in the club are also in love with Raffy. Although Ollie reminds him that they are classmates, Raffy still invites him to be the fourth member of the Comical Ironical Crime Ring.