This is the whimsical story of a little six-inch high girl who communicates with the animals and birds of the forest. She rides the backs of an eagle by day and an owl by night, while learning about the ways of the forest, and the animals and birds that live there. Lil' Oriole, as she is named, must learn some sobering lessons about these creatures of the forest and what they must do to survive. Sometimes she realizes that cruelty is not part of how and why these animals and birds must eke out a living in the forest. Each creature is simply trying to survive, to make a living and make it through to another day.

In meeting these creatures, Lil' Oriole loses some of her naivete about them, learning to appreciate each creature for its own importance in the web of things.