George Laidlaw, a popular student, is looking forward to the upcoming school year. He’s nominated for class secretary and his best friend, Tom Bertran, is almost certain to win the class presidency. George’s life changes when Miss Billings, his teacher, reads his excellent composition aloud to the class about what he did over the summer vacation. He had discovered a new hobby, about which he was keen and which he wanted to explore further: butterfly collecting. Most of the other boys believe only girls, creeps or crazy people are interested in collecting butterflies. Even Tom doesn’t understand why George would have written such a composition open to ridicule when it sounded like he did many more interesting “boy” things. George has to decide whether to follow his passion or cave to peer pressure.