11-year-old Preston Waters laments his relative lack of money compared to his entrepreneurial older brothers and his working class father, an investor. His situation regularly leads him to humiliating situations including having his brothers, 16-year-old Damian and 15-year-old Ralph, commandeer his bedroom as an office for their home business. He is also forced to attend his bully Butch's birthday party at Cliffside Fun Park, where he is unable to afford anything other than the kiddie rides because his father is very frugal with money.
One day, he gets involved in a bike accident with escaped convict Carl Quigley, who had just left a Zero Halliburton briefcase containing $1,000,000 in stolen cash in the care of bank president Edward H. Biderman to be laundered and retrieved by an associate the next day. Afraid of drawing attention from the police, Quigley hastily hands Preston a signed blank check and flees the scene.
Preston uses his computer to fill out the check himself for $1,000,000 and attempts to cash it the next day. He is taken to Biderman, who believes Preston is the associate named “Juice” that Quigley told him he was sending. Believing this is part of Quigley's plan, Biderman fills Preston’s backpack with $1,000,000 in clean money and Preston leaves the bank just as the real Juice arrives for the money.