Plot

What would you do if you found 1 million dollars? Thirteen year old Tim Parker and his buddies lives are suddenly changed when a duffel bag containing a million dollars is dropped off on a bike trail they are riding. From the Director of "Where the Red Fern Grows" comes a heartwarming story about 3 boys who work together to ultimately find answers they didn't even know they were looking for.

Drop Off is a moral tale told in a humorous and heartwarming style having to do with issues of class discrimination, greed, anger, jealousy and then redemption. Thirteen year old Tim Parker and his underprivileged buddies lives are suddenly changed when a duffel bag with a million dollars is dropped in the path of a bike trail they are riding. "Perhaps life is fair after all" proclaims Tim, who has just lost his father and whose mother is about to lose their only source of income from their Bed and Breakfast inn. Surely the boys stumbling on to a million dollars is "providential" given their unfortunate circumstances; not only is Tim about to lose his home but his buddy Cruz's grandpa needs life saving surgery and his other friend Josh has just been placed into another foster family's care, and the idea of being tossed from home to home has become wearisome. A further sign of "providence" is that their newly found (manna) money can put the boys on a little more equal footing with their overbearing rich friends and their state of the art motorbikes, x-boxes, video games, I-phones etc. ... not to mention a little more even playing field (in the case of Tim) for the attention of the gorgeous Samantha E dmunds. Unbeknownst to the boys, they are being sought out by a couple criminals, who had tossed the money bag out the window of their vehicle while being pursued in a high speed car chase by the feds. After careful thought the boys stash the money in a remote cave so that they can determine how to distribute it in a way they will not be found out. They conclude that they must find a stand-in whose principal qualification is that he is an adult and that he will not ask a lot of questions. "Winston Pruitt will be perfect" exclaims Tim. Given Pruitt's general state of inebriation, "he won't ask a lot of questions". They can get him to agree to the short trip to Denver where they can get him to agree to deposit the money for their newly found philanthropic foundation. Winston agrees to go along but as he sobers up he begins not only asking questions of them but himself as well. Through this newly found 'friendship' we discover that Winston is a "man of means" but has tried to escape his past and anything that reminds himself of the tragedy that took place with his wife and young son many years ago. Through this newly found partner, the boys learn how money does not bring happiness. After being chased by the bad guys, who are being pursued by the feds, the boys realize that they can only find peace by honesty and by returning good for evil.