The year is 1991, and Spud Milton's long walk to manhood remains creeping together in an unnervingly pace. Approaching the ripe old age of fifteen and indications of this anticipated ball-drop, Spud is coming to terms with the fact he might be described as a freak of nature. The brand new year seems to provide little except extreme embarrassment and mortifying Milton chaos with a demented grandmother, a father building a killing out of attempting to sell moonshine, and a mother hell-bent on emigrating called Wombat. But Spud is returning to a boarding school at which he could be no longer smallest or the funniest. His dormitory mates, known as the Crazy Eight, have an odd new manhood and also his house includes a new clutch of first years (the Conventional Seven). But he's seriously mistaken, In case Spud believes his year is likely to be a piece of cake.