For the Tibetan Mastiffs living on Snow Mountain, a dog's life has a simple riff: Guard a peaceful village of wool-making sheep from the thuggish wolf Linnux and his rabid pack. To avoid distractions, Mastiff leader Khampa forbids all music from the mountain. But when Khampa's son Bodi discovers a radio dropped by a passing airplane, it takes just a few guitar licks for his fate to be sealed: Bodi wants to be a rock 'n' roll star.

Set in Mississippi in the late 1940s and based on Willie Morris' boyhood memoirs. Eight-year-old Willie loses his only friend in the world to the draft, until his mother gives him a puppy for his birthday.