Stuff happens sometimes. Everyday stuff. At school, at home, with sport, with mates. For Cooper it happened on school camp. Cooper is one of the footy boys. When his former-rugby-champion grandfather dies, Cooper has trouble dealing with it. To make matters worse, the funeral falls on the first day of the Year Five camp at Thunder Canyon, half a day's drive away. So Cooper not only misses out on the bus trip with his friends Jeff, Dan, Fadi, but when he finally arrives at camp he's missed out on abseiling, the activity he was most looking forward to, missed sharing a cabin with his friends, and can't even sit with them in the dining room or on the bus to the following day's kayaking lesson. In order to restore his life to what it was, and win back the respect of his sporty friends, he disobeys a kayak instructors' directives and puts both his life and that of his paddle-buddy Lily Ng in serious danger on the white waters of Thunder River.