- Peekay starts school and quickly proves to be the smartest kid in his class, and is skipped ahead by two years. He continues his music lessons from Doc, who is usually hung over from his late-night whiskey sessions, but always happy to see Peekay and ready for a walk in the hills.
- One day, on their way back from a hike, they arrive at Doc's house and are met by two military policemen. They arrest doc on the charges of "conspiracy to undermine the security of a nation at war."
- Doc asks if he can shave and change clothes, and the officers let him. While he showers, Peekay packs a bag for him and adds a bottle of whiskey for good measure. The officer finds it and says that while Doc can't take it to jail with him, they could enjoy it together in the house before they go.
- The officer drinks almost half a bottle, but Doc won't partake. The officer tells about a movie he saw where someone spilled whiskey on a piano and it started playing by itself, then pours whiskey on the keys of Doc's prized Steinway piano.
- Doc gets really mad and hits the officer with his cane, then walks out the front door. The officer sobers up pretty quick and chases Doc down, kicks him, and then accidentally kicks Peekay in the chin when he jumps in to save Doc.
- The next thing Peekay knows he is in a hospital with his jaw wired shut and no one will tell him what happened to Doc.
- Marie, one of the nurses, ends up telling Peekay that he tackled the German spy, Doc, when he tried to escape into the hills, who then smashed him in the face. Since his jaw is broken, Peekay can't talk to explain that that isn't what happened.
- Peekay's mother and Pastor Mulvery come in and try to save Peekay's soul in the mornings, but he won't give in. He does write notes asking about Doc, but his mother won't answer because she doesn't want to upset him.
- Peekay gets Marie to smuggle a letter to Mrs. Boxall explaining everything that happened the day of Doc's arrest. She visits him and shows him a newspaper article that shows the picture Doc had taken of him the first day they met and a headline accusing Doc of being a spy and trying to kill Peekay. It explains that Doc had tried to run, but that Peekay had bravely tackled him and been kicked in the head by Doc.
- Peekay's mother is upset about Mrs. Boxall's infiltration into the hospital, and won't let anyone visit Peekay. However, Mrs. Boxall sneaks in a newspaper and a letter in a bag of bananas and finds out that Peekay's letter matches Doc's statement, so that the judge would like to test Peekay to make sure that he is really the one who wrote the letter.
- Peekay meets with the judge and passes the test, which means that Doc is acquitted from his charges of being a spy and an attempted child murderer. However, he had not registered with the government as an alien, so he is still in violation of the law and must stay in prison for the duration of the war.
- The superintendent of the prison is an Afrikaner and sympathizes with Germany in the war. For this reason he takes a liking to Doc and decides to let him have his piano as well as the run of the prison and visitors, as though he were an honored guest in the prison.
- Peekay goes to visit him for the first time, and meets a couple of white prison guards, Lieutenant Smit and Klipkop, who happen to mention that they are boxers. Peekay asks if he can train with them, but Lieutenant Smit says he's too small, not to mention that he just had his jaw broken.
- Klipkop beats the black prisoner who works in the office for eating all the cookies, and makes him lick his boots. After the humiliation, Lieutenant Smit confesses that he was the one who ate them all.
- Peekay is brought in to meet with the superintendent, Kommandant van Zyl, who gives him a permanent visitor's pass. Peekay takes the chance to go over Lieutenant Smit's head and ask if he can join the boxing squad, and he is given permission.
- Lieutenant Smit is not happy about Peekay's sly move, but has no choice but to let him fight. It turns out that Lieutenant Smit's brother is the very same Jackhammer Smit that Hoppie beat in the only boxing match Peekay has ever seen. It really is a small world after all.
- Klipkop is scheduled to fight Jackhammer on Saturday, and since Peekay knows the players, the guards forgive him for his cheekiness and tell him to come at five thirty every day for practice, and that he won't be allowed to fight until he's ten, in three years.
- Peekay finally gets to see Doc, and promises to take care of his cactus garden while he is in prison. He also finds out that the Kommandant has scheduled a concert featuring Doc in the town square the following Monday, which Doc is not too happy about, but will annoy the authorities who put him in jail in the first place.
- Doc asks Peekay to go to his house and put whatever he finds on top of Beethoven's Symphony Number Five in his piano bench into a water flask. Since he is speaking English, Klipkop, who only speaks Afrikaans, doesn't understand Peekay's secret mission.
- Dum and Dee go with Peekay to Doc's house on their afternoon off, and they clean it up while he opens up the piano bench. He finds a bottle of Johnnie Walker Scotch whiskey on top of Beethoven's Fifth, fills up the flask with it, and puts it in the stool.
- Mrs. Boxall is very excited about the concert, and has been doing some digging into Doc's past. It turns out he was a very famous musician in his day, and the reasons that he gave it up and hid himself away in Africa are a mystery.
- Some guards and prisoners come to move Doc's piano on Monday, and Doc looks very nervous. He wants to speak with Peekay, so Peekay invites Gert, another guard who can't speak English, to accompany them to the backyard as their supervisor.
- Doc explains that he hasn't played a concert in sixteen years because when he was playing a concert in Berlin he froze and could not play the third movement of Beethoven's Fifth. Every night since then he has tried to play, but he freezes up at the same spot, and only whiskey will let him rest.
- It's the moment of truth: now he has to play the very same music that has haunted him in front of everyone. Peekay offers to turn the pages for Doc, and they head to town for the concert. Everything is closed because everyone and their dog have turned up for the show.
- Doc asks for his water flask, stat, and Peekay hands it over. The Kommandant gives a speech explaining that he is a Boer, not a Britisher, and protesting the loss of the professor's freedom. The town mayor gets in on the argument, defending the English, and the crowd goes wild.
- During the beginnings of a riot, Doc starts playing from the back of a truck, and everybody calms down. He makes it all the way through the devilish third movement and makes the little old ladies cry.
- With that, the truck takes off back to prison and Doc is cured of his demons.