Short Boat on a Long River transports the reader to the Mississippi River of 1904, where a race of small boats, beginning at St. Paul, Minnesota and ending at the St. Louis World's Fair, is about to take place. Fourteen-year-old Jimmy had expected to enjoy the race from afar while his father piloted a "sneakbox" of their own design, with the hope that victory and the resulting publicity would bring sales to bolster the family's struggling Chicago boatworks. But suddenly, fate and manmade mischief threaten the family's enterprise unless Jimmy himself can outnavigate the adult competition, survive the treacheries of a trio of sore losers-and of the river itself-and bring Independence One across the finish line to first place.