David Wiseman is mad about cricket but no good at it! The 11 year old has all the kit he could wish for but none of the skill, and he's a perpetual outsider at school. When a Jamaican family move in next door, build a cricket net in the back garden and even offer to coach him, David is in seventh heaven. But in the climate of postwar England, residents of the community make life difficult for the newly arrived family, and David has to choose between fitting in and standing up for his new friends.