A young boy observes an old man building elaborate towers from discarded materials, learning to see the potential in "junk" and the value of creation over destruction.
The story in this book is as real as the pictures. The towers really exist, in the Watts section of Los Angeles, and they really were built, bit by bit, by one man. The boys in the story might have encountered the man, as the author imagines they did. They and the man are acting in scenes which could have happened.
It is the story of an angry boy in a dirty city, who first mocks the man as a back-alley junk collector. But out of curiosity the boy follows the man, and discovers something of great importance to himself.
