Trevor, the captain of the Wrykyn football team, finds his schoolboy honor in jeopardy when a miniature gold bat known to be in his keeping is misplaced in the course of a prank executed by O’Hara, the irrepressible Irishman. Trevor, O’Hara, and others must find the bat to preserve Trevor’s honor, while also ensuring Wrykyn’s victory in football over their arch-rival Ripton, and suffering increasingly audacious attacks from the sinister and anonymous League.

The Gold Bat is one of P. G. Wodehouse’s earliest works, and the first of several set at the fictional boys’ public school Wrykyn. It was originally serialized in The Captain magazine and later published by A & C Black, London.