How are we supposed to be partners?

He can’t start to see the cards and I don’t know the rules!

The summertime after junior year of senior high school appears bleak for Alton Richards. His partner has dumped him to hook up with his closest friend. He has no money and no work. His parents insist that he get his great-uncle Lester to his bridge club four times weekly and become his cardturner-whatever which means. Alton’s uncle is certainly old, blind, very sick, and very rich.

But Alton’s parents aren’t the only ones wanting to worm their way into Lester Trapp’s good graces. They’re in competition along with his longtime housekeeper, his alluring youthful nurse, as well as the crazy Castaneda family, who seem to possess a mysterious impact over him. Alton quickly discovers himself intrigued by his uncle, by the game of bridge, and especially by the quite and timid Toni Castaneda. As the summer goes on, he struggles to figure out what it all means, and eventually to determine the meaning of his own life.