Donald Poultry is a young, intelligent but somewhat socially stunted middle school boy attending Camp North Pines for the summer along with other middle and high school kids. Riding the bus to the camp, he talks into his tape recorder diary, voicing his concerns. All goes well upon arrival; the kids unpack and are given time to play outside before the introductory camp dinner. Donald is caught by a counselor-in-training and bully, Stanley Runk, whose friends call him Runk The Punk. Runk tells Donald it's time for cabin cleaning, but becomes interested in Donald's tape recorder. Donald fools him into thinking it's a computer that analyzes him in an insulting way, and Donald strikes up an immediate enmity with Runk, only to be saved by another CIT, Chris Wade, who dismisses Runk.