George Waters, a ten-year-old orphan, lives on a cove on the edge of Halifax with his wheelchair-bound grandfather who regales him with stories of the treasure that pirates buried on George's Island, which lies right in the middle of Halifax harbour. George's prissy schoolteacher Cloata Birdwood and Mr. Droonfield, a mild-mannered but priggish social worker, force George into a foster home where he's locked behind bars each night. But amidst the whirlwind of events surrounding Halloween, George escapes to George's Island, where Captain Kidd and his crew dance a ghostly jig around a treasure chest that's been buried for 250 years.