The novel opens as Ben Slovak reviews Griffin Bing’s plan to liberate their friend Savannah Drysdale’s father from a traffic ticket. Griffin believes the ticket is unjust because there’s no problem with the Drysdale monkey (Cleopatra) clinging to the family dog’s neck while the dog had its head out the car window. The boys go to Savannah’s house to explain the plan, but before they can, Savannah bursts from the house in a panic, crying, “Cleopatra is gone” (8).

Savannah has missing posters up all around town, and she asks Ben and Griffin to search a few of Cleopatra’s favorite spots so she can wait by the phone in case anyone calls. The boys take Savannah’s dog, who frightens them, so he can sniff out the monkey. They don’t find Cleopatra at any of the places Savannah suggested, but the dog sniffs out a half-eaten banana, which Savannah recognizes as evidence Cleopatra was kidnapped.

As Savannah updates the police on Cleopatra’s disappearance, Ben tells Griffin he will be going to a special boarding school for people with sleep disorders, since Ben struggles to get his narcolepsy under control. Neither boy wants Ben to go, and Ben tries to comfort Griffin with the news he can come home on some weekends.