Matt hides his peas in the sugar bowl to escape the dinner table before his parents notice.

Matt invites little sister Katie to the campout to stop her from revealing his hidden peas.

Matt and his friends gather in Tony's backyard for the first official adventure club meeting.

The children feel a strange compulsion and climb into a rowboat drifting toward the lakeshore.

Katie falls overboard when the rowboat pitches in icy river currents during a violent storm.

General Washington pulls Katie to safety and demands the boys declare themselves friend or foe to the Revolution.

Q announces that the group has traveled back in time to Revolutionary War-era America.

A rum-smelling captain forces Matt to take up arms and march with the regiment toward Trenton.

Matt befriends young soldier Israel Gates in the marching column and trades him a sneaker for his infected foot.

Israel Gates dies in the snow beside the road to Trenton as Matt refuses to abandon him.

Nathan Hornbee finds Matt frozen in the cold and brings him to his farm for shelter and food.

Matt reunites with Tony and Hooter after encountering two Native American boys in the forest.

Matt's plan to steal the Hessians' weapons fails and the Hessians take Matt, Tony, and Hooter prisoner.

Rebel soldiers shoot and kill the kind Hessian Gustav moments after he saves Katie from thin ice.

Katie's spoken wish to go home activates the rowboat's magic and returns the group to their own time.

A simple plan to skip eating peas leads Matt Carlton to bring his little sister Katie on an adventure club campout. A mysterious rowboat at a local lake pulls the whole group back to the freezing night of Washington's crossing of the Delaware River, dropping them into the middle of Revolutionary War. Matt is separated from his friends and forced to march with the Continental Army, where he meets young soldier Israel Gates and witnesses war's brutal human cost firsthand. After Israel dies, Matt must navigate the wilderness alone, reunite with his friends, and rescue Katie and Q from Hessian captivity. The children witness the death of a kind enemy soldier before finding the time-traveling rowboat and heading home. Back at the family dinner table, Matt's parents have no idea their son just survived a war.

The headline events of an accidental journey from the dinner table to Revolutionary War and back.

Matt assigns club roles: Tony as scout, Q as brain, and Hooter as strong man.

Matt proposes a spontaneous night hike to the lake, overruling Tony's suggestion to wait for permission.

Tony shares the legend of Lake Levart and stories of people who vanished at the lake without a trace.

Q uses his astronomy knowledge to confirm the moon is in its three-quarter phase, matching the legend's warning.

Tony spots the name Emit Levart inscribed on the rowboat by the light of Q's flashlight.

Matt recognizes the soldiers as the famous Marbleheaders, Massachusetts sailors who helped Washington cross the Delaware.

Matt touches General Washington's boot on the soldier's boat, marveling at the soldiers' devotion to their cause.

Adam Hibbs is appointed guardian of the children and then accidentally falls on his own bayonet in the dark.

Matt is seized by Captain McCowly while trying to return General Washington's cape and is forced to march.

Israel explains he enlisted as a paid substitute soldier to earn money and food for his struggling family.

Drummer boy Henry Schudder roughly shakes Matt and urges him to abandon the weakening Israel and save himself.

Israel asks Matt to promise to deliver glass beads to his younger sister Abby before falling silent forever.

Mrs. Hornbee demands Matt leave the farm immediately, fearing their Loyalist neighbors will suspect the family of rebel ties.

Matt releases Blackjack the mule before following the Native American boys into the forest toward the Hessian camp.

Mr. Carlton asks for the sugar bowl at dinner, unaware it still holds Matt's peas from the night before.

Before the journey begins, the adventure club's assigned roles and Tony's telling of the Lake Levart legend put all the pieces in place for disaster. The soldiers the children meet in 1775—the Marbleheaders, Adam Hibbs, Captain McCowly, Henry Schudder, and Israel Gates—each reveal a different face of Revolutionary War life. Israel's story of reluctant enlistment gave Matt a personal mission that outlasted Israel himself, while the Hornbee farm showed the fear and conflict felt by ordinary bystanders caught in wartime. Bartering a video game for Native American guidance and releasing a borrowed mule marked Matt's shift from reactive traveler to determined leader. These secondary events fill in the texture of the adventure and the voices that pushed Matt toward each of his choices. The story's final comic twist—Matt's father innocently asking for the sugar bowl—closes the loop on the hidden peas from the novel's very first scene.

The supporting scenes and secondary characters who shaped the adventure.

Matt's parents praise his kindness in inviting Katie to the campout, unaware he only did it to hide his peas.

Katie arms herself with a water gun, toy bow, and plastic sword before announcing she is ready for adventure.

Katie disappears from the group on the hike while the boys are absorbed in discussing Tony's lake legend.

The rowboat vanishes as a cloud covers the moon, plunging the group into a freezing and unfamiliar dark river.

Q bluntly points out that Adam Hibbs must still be trapped in the past, forcing Matt to grasp their true danger.

Matt spots Colonel Knox commanding artillery among the soldiers and is struck by seeing a history-book figure in real life.

Matt decides to stay beside the dying Israel rather than march on with the departing regiment and save himself.

Matt discovers Israel's glass beads are missing just as he tries to leave them behind with Mr. Hornbee.

Tony and Hooter reveal that Adam Hibbs is the grandson of the same Adam Hibbs lost at the lake in the legend.

Matt holds red berries near his head to mime red hair and successfully communicates Katie's description to the Native American boys.

The children realize not all enemies are cruel when Hessian soldier Gustav kindly learns their names and smiles warmly at them.

Captain McCowly fails to recognize Matt when rebel soldiers threaten to imprison the children as Tory spies.

General Washington personally promises Matt that Israel's sister Abby will receive the glass beads.

The children decode the boat inscription Emit Levart as time travel written backwards, solving the rowboat's mystery.

Matt's parents praise his maturity for taking care of Katie at the campout, completely unaware of his true wartime adventure.

From the very first scene, dramatic irony shapes the story as Matt's parents praise him for an act of kindness that was really self-preservation. Each step of the journey brings a new revelation—Q's chilling observation about Adam Hibbs's fate, the shock of seeing history-book figures like Colonel Knox in real life, and the discovery that their assigned guardian was connected to the lake legend all along. The hardest turning point comes when Matt chooses to stay beside the dying Israel rather than save himself, a decision that transforms him from an impulsive boy into someone who understands duty. Subsequent discoveries—the missing glass beads, the decoded boat inscription, and General Washington's personal promise—each raise the stakes or unlock the path home. The children's growing bond with the kind Hessian Gustav, cut short by his sudden death, shattered their simple view of heroes and enemies. At the story's end, the same dramatic irony that opened the novel returns, but this time Matt has truly earned the praise.