In this final book in the series, the seventh graders of McQuarrie Middle School and their Star Wars-inspired Origami finger puppets go on a field trip to Washington, D.C., on what proves to be a very long trip full of shifting alliances, betrayals, carsickness, and sugar rushes.

The students in Miss Mickle's third-grade class enjoy a boat trip on the Connecticut River after a class discussion of ancestors reveals that Sidney and Ida both have connections to the sea.

While on a field trip, James "Gum" Shoo's art class unexpectedly finds a forgery at the museum, and it is up to Gum and his friends to solve the mystery and find the culprit.

When Rafe is invited to attend an all-expenses paid art field trip in California, he jumps at the opportunity, but things go sideways, as they always do for Rafe, after he realizes he'll be participating in a "Cultural Campout" in the desert and a series of unfortunate events follow, including an encounter with a cranky crocodile, a claustrophobic trip into an ancient cave, and a plot to smuggle a legendary missing diamond