THE FOLLY OF JONAH

Alec Beaumont, 16, is the reclusive and reserved son of a filmmaker. He lives in the Hollywood Hills and prefers to spend summer days in his room reading books. Jake Katzin, a year younger, is outgoing and gregarious, newly relocated when his family opens a new restaurant in Hollywood’s business district. Outwardly, they seem an unlikely pair to become friends; Alec emulates his cerebral hero Sherlock Holmes and Jake fantasizes living the swashbuckling movie life of Errol Flynn. But they both share an unspoken loneliness, dislocated in life and carrying an uneasy feeling of aimlessness.

Their accidental meeting gives them purpose and opportunity. Jake recognizes an abstract painting in Alec’s house, The Folly of Jonah, as part of his great aunt’s estate in Germany that was confiscated by the Nazis. The boys agree to track down how the painting came to Hollywood. Jake is intrigued by the mystery while Alec is driven by a sense of justice, and through the course of their escapades, they become close friends. Alec provides brakes for Jake’s impulsiveness and Jake spurs Alec out of his shell.

While staking out the art gallery that sold the painting, they discover a Nazi smuggling operation. Investigating the smugglers leads them to a hidden compound in the mountains where they find a lot more than just smuggled valuables: military-grade weapons, militia training, and a coded ledger in a secret drawer.

The boys alert the police and are ignored. Jake turns to the mobsters of his old neighborhood to make a deal: he’ll show gangsters where to find all the loot if they release his father from paying protection money. The raid goes terribly wrong, and the Nazis go deep underground. As the boys try to find the new location, they uncover a plot to kill hundreds of Jews. As the heaviest rainstorms in a century pound the city, they race against the clock to infiltrate the new hideout, destroy the weapons, steal the coded ledger, and put the Nazis out of business for good.