 Charlie accepts a temporary job over Thanksgiving weekend in order to afford a plane ticket home to Oregon for Christmas.The woman who hires him asks Charlie to watch over her uncle, retired Army Officer Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, whom Charlie discovers to be a cantankerous, blind alcoholic.Charlie and George Willis, Jr., another student at the Baird School, witness three students setting up a prank that publicly humiliates the headmaster, Mr. Trask.