Durante la Gran Depresión, Bud, un niño que tiene 10 años, se escapa de su familia adoptiva y va en búsqueda de su padre. Bud cree que su padre es un gran músico. Ten-year-old Bud, a motherless boy living in Flint, Michigan, during the Great Depression, escapes a bad foster home and sets out in search of the man he believes to be his father--the renowned bandleader, H.E. Calloway of Grand Rapids.

Two brothers, having run away from the aunt who plans to adopt the younger one, are sought by a detective hired by their aunt, but they have found shelter with--and protection from--Venice's "Thief Lord."