Eight year old Billy Reilly is trying to find someone important to write about for an essay contest on a great person. The contest is sponsored by a sports shop, with a baseball glove as the winning prize. In a discussion while Billy is trying to think about who to write, the local librarian makes Billy expand his search from the types of people who are generally written about in books, to people that Billy may encounter every day that do important things. Regardless, Billy still has troubles finding a subject. It isn’t until an incident that happens to him during a pickup baseball game in a back lot and a seemingly unrelated discussion with his policeman father at home later that day that makes Billy choose his subject, and view that person in a different light than he has done before. Those incidents in combination also make Billy change his focus from trying to win a baseball glove to highlighting what he sees and what he hopes others will see through his essay as the greatness of this person.