Grady Redwine is a legendary local high school basketball coach whose world falls apart when he gets on the wrong side of the school board and is unjustly railroaded out of his job. Life gets even worse for him weeks later when he learns that the love of his life-his wife, Mary-has cancer, and the only way he can save his medical benefits is to drive a Special Needs bus for an experimental program in Life Skills.

Grady is a stranger in a strange land on that bus. He's completely bewildered by the children's behavior and knows deep down he is wrong for the job, but he's not a quitter. He's no clinical psychologist either, but as a natural coach, he can recognize when it's late in the fourth quarter; the game's on the line; and he needs to fall back on experience to find a way to teach these kids some life skills.

When Grady stops emphasizing the CAN'Ts in his kids and begins watching for CANs, readers find themselves on a tender and often humorous ride that they never dreamed possible.