- Peekay's best friend from the first day of boarding school is Morrie Levy, one of the only Jews to ever study at the Prince of Wales School. They decide to stick together to survive in a school where they are both out of place (Peekay is one of the only students who is not very wealthy). Morrie promises to teach Peekay about making money.
- The new boys at school are made to be servants to the older boys as a sort of initiation, and Peekay makes a mistake one day when he is bringing a cream bun to Fred Cooper, his assigned boss. He licks a bit of cream off the bun, and Cooper can tell. He beats Peekay and tells him to go buy a new one.
- Unfortunately, Peekay doesn't have two pence to his name, and Morrie offers to loan him some money until the students get their pocket money from home the next day. When Peekay tells him that he doesn't get pocket money, Morrie tells him he can pay him back when they are through with school. Peekay is too proud to take the money, but Morrie helps him smooth out the cream on the bun so that it looks as good as new and fools Cooper.
- The boxing squad at school is, to put it lightly, lousy. They have been in last place for years, and Morrie takes an interest in turning things around for the squad. He volunteers to be manager, and is sure that he can give the guys hope with one winner. That winner is, of course, our Peekay.
- Morrie also plans to run a gambling scheme on the side. This kid knows a thing or two about money.
- At the first fight, Morrie takes bets and needs Peekay to win in order to cover the odds he has given. Since they don't know anything about his opponent, a big kid named Geldenhuis, they are operating on blind faith.
- In the first round Peekay knocks Geldenhuis flat on his back, and then sits him down again. In the second round Peekay gets an eight-punch combination in that he learned from Geel Piet, and the other team starts cheering him on.
- The ref calls the fight before the third round because of a cut on Geldenhuis' eye, and Peekay takes the first win for the Prince of Wales School in two years.
- Morrie's theory that the team just needs one winner seems to be right, because even though the other seven boxers on the squad lose their fights that day they feel like they are champions because they have Peekay on their side.
- Geldenhuis is friendly to Peekay after the fight, shaking his hand, and promises to get his revenge on the rugby field. Meanwhile, Morrie and Peekay are rich from their gambling enterprise.
- After Peekay's win, several of the other new boys join the boxing team, and Morrie forms a club dedicated to restoring the team to its former glory. Except that no one is sure that that glory ever existed in the first place. Oh, well, right? Morrie says that history is all about inventing a glorious past, not about truth, anyway.
- At the fight Peekay had noticed that a dozen black people wanted permission to watch the fight, which is nerve-wracking for the organizers because there is a nine o'clock curfew for black people in South Africa, and they don't want any trouble from the police. However, all of the black spectators have notes from their employers, giving them permission to be out, kind of like a hall pass for grown people, so they are allowed to stay.
- After the fight all but one of them was gone. The tall man looked at Peekay, raised his fist, and shouted "Onoshobishobi Ingelosi!" The Tadpole Angel's fame had preceded him to the city, and his black fan club would continue to grow throughout the years.
- In the same way, the African servants at the school start taking special care of Peekay, doing his laundry, patching his clothes, and shining his shoes without ever revealing who had done it or why. But he knows that it is because he is the Tadpole Angel.