Honeybear and Skippy stumble into the high-intensity world of American Kennel Club dog obedience competition as the most clueless of neophytes. They share a life-defining adventure in pursuit of the "Holy Grail" of dog sports. Their odyssey is an emotional roller coaster -- a succession of cliffhangers resulting from injuries, training crises, performance curve balls and the mine field called the competition ring. Along the way there are underlying conflicts: about training philosophies and methods, with members of the lowlife fringe of the obedience community and, indeed, internal conflicts.