Rebounding from his father's accidental death, 12-year-old Josh Framm moves with his family to the small town of Fernfield, Washington. Being the new kid in town, Josh has no friends and is too shy to try out for the school basketball team. Instead he practices alone on an abandoned court. There, he befriends a runaway golden retriever named Buddy. Josh is amazed when he realizes that Buddy loves to play basketball and is good at it. Josh eventually...

The mysterious box that Ranger the golden retriever found in the garden transports him back to first century Rome, where he must rescue Marcus, a young servant boy, and Quintus, a volunteer gladiator, from the brutal world of the Colosseum.