A young boy, fascinated by every kind of lion, loves one in particular -- the stone lion that protects a house just down the street from his home. His grandfather takes him to see the lion almost every day. As the boy grows up, he notices that the lion has more cracks each year, and he wonders why. As the boy becomes a young man in high school, he longs to visit the lion again and, eager to do so, he doesn`t pay attention to his science lesson about acid rain. Instead, he daydreams about his visit and the many memories from his childhood. But his visit to his old friend, the stone lion, proves to be a science lesson in itself. .