SISTER MARY accuses JOHNNY, who is mischievous, of stealing $25 from the sixth-grade 1957 St. Timothy’s Parochial School Pagan Babies contest. In the Pagan Babies adoption program, when a child’s charitable donation reaches five dollars, he or she ransoms a child overseas, gets a certificate and the right to name the child.

The Pagan Babies are actual children being looked after by missionary sisters, brothers and priests in their countries. The money collected in the United States goes to help feed, clothe and educate them.

While admitting that he is no angel, Johnny emphatically denies stealing the money and blames Sister Mary’s forgetfulness on her misplacing the money. While she is forgetful, she has purposely fingered Johnny as her fall boy to explain why her classroom’s Pagan Babies money doesn't match the amount collected because she has been siphoning some of the funds to support her drinking habit.