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On Kids Radio, John Avery Whittaker opens the Book of Speculations, a collection of stories that never happened but could have. He recalls how Jesus once called fishermen named Simon, James, and John away from their nets, and he wonders aloud what those men might have been like as boys growing up together by the Sea of Galilee. Then the story begins, two thousand years ago in the town of Capernaum.

In the synagogue, an elderly rabbi tries to teach a handful of boys the Hebrew scriptures. Eager James waves his hand at every question and recites long passages perfectly, dreaming of becoming a rabbi himself. His brother John daydreams about the promised Messiah, wondering how anyone will recognize him when he comes. And Simon keeps asking the same restless question: if God promised to defend his people, why does he let the Romans swarm over the land and oppress them? The weary rabbi can only answer that God is faithful and will keep his promise of deliverance, and he warns Simon that impatience will bring him trouble.

Outside, trouble is already waiting. The boys discover their friend Joshua hiding in a basket, clutching a fine pair of sandals, while Levi, the son of the tax collector Alpheus, storms up demanding them back. Joshua insists the sandals are his, but James settles the argument and returns them to Levi. Alone with his friends, Joshua admits he took them for his little brother, whose own sandals are falling apart, and argues it is not stealing to take from those who steal. Joshua burns with hatred for Jews who serve Rome, and James warns him that provoking the tax collectors will bring a Roman fist down on his head.

Later, while Simon guts fish at the shore, Joshua comes looking for more than conversation. He shares the grief that drives him: before he was born, his family lived near Bethlehem, where King Herod, fearing a child born to be king, ordered every boy two years old and younger killed. Joshua's older brother was one of them, and his parents have never stopped grieving. Now, with taxes about to be raised again, Joshua wants to send Alpheus a message, and he talks Simon into helping. The plan is to climb the fish gate and dump jars of stinking fish guts on the tax collector's head as he passes below.

That night, James studies late by lamplight, preparing to ask the rabbi about his future. John muses that James's hope of serving God and Simon's hope for the Messiah both come from the same place. He has changed his mind about the Messiah shining like the sun; he now believes the Messiah will look like any ordinary man. When James asks how anyone will know him, John answers simply, "I'll recognize him with my heart."

The next morning, the prank goes forward. The chum splatters down on Alpheus, but Joshua, declaring the tax collector deserves worse, hurls a jar that strikes the man on the head and knocks him down. Shouting that he hopes the traitor dies, Joshua flees with a horrified Simon.

That same day, James recites beautifully for the rabbi and asks to be trained as a rabbi himself. The old teacher gently refuses. James's knowledge is without question, he says, but anyone can memorize scripture; a rabbi needs humility, and that is the one quality he does not see in James. His surprising advice is "Learn to fish, James," even to learn to love it as a service to God, for it will prepare him for a day when God will call him again, and in his heart he will know it is the right time to answer.

Meanwhile, Levi leads a Roman centurion straight to Simon. A shard from the broken jar bears his family's mark, and Simon is dragged before the Roman prefect, where he insists over and over that he knows nothing. Then Joshua is brought in. He confesses that the whole thing was a prank gone wrong, claims he stole the jar from Simon's boat the night before, and swears he acted completely alone. The prefect, noting that Alpheus is recovering, warns Joshua how seriously Rome treats attacks on its officials, but the boy will not name anyone else. Asked for his full name for the record, he answers, "Joshua, son of Abbas" - Joshua Bar-Abbas. As he is led away to a long stay in a Roman prison, the prefect tells Simon Bar-Jonah that he may thank either his innocence or Joshua's lies for his freedom, and hopes never to see him again.

Afterward, the three friends take stock. Simon, shaken by how close he came to prison, decides to keep his eyes on the fishing nets, stay away from zealots and their wild ideas, and take the rabbi's lessons more seriously. James, still stinging from being told to become a fisherman, wonders what all his study was for. John declares that they will be faithful Jews and the best of fishermen, giving glory to God in both. Where will that lead them? God only knows, he says, but if it leads anywhere, he hopes they will have the good sense to follow.

Whittaker closes the book by reading what happened years later by the lake of Gennesaret: after a night of empty nets, Simon lets down his nets at Jesus' word and hauls in a catch so huge the boats begin to sink. Astonished, Simon Peter falls at Jesus' knees, and Jesus tells him not to be afraid, for from now on he will be a fisher of men. And Simon, James, and John leave everything and follow him. The story, Whittaker reminds his listeners, didn't happen, but it could have - for who knows the many ways God is preparing each of us, even as kids, for the moment when he calls us to follow?