Joey lives with his mother. His father isn't around, he doesn't like school, he is bored, and he takes orders from nobody. In other words, he is a real little scamp. At her wits' end with him, his mother decides to look for a "big brother" (a sort of surrogate father) for him. At first, this clumsy Arnie doesn't know how to handle Joey, but after a while everything changes--and not only for Joey.