A hoot owl, Ocax, rules Dimwood Forest and promises to protect the mice as long as they ask his permission to move about. Poppy is a deer mouse under the owl's protection, but when her fiance is killed by Ocax she defies the owl and begins a journey to a new place. Poppy wants to find a place where her family can live away from Ocax, but she has to do it without Ocax catching her.

Ereth, the prickly old porcupine, is having a dreadful birthday. Not even his beloved friend, the deer mouse Poppy, remembers the occasion. Jellied walrus warts! If he wants a birthday present he'll have to get it for himself. Traveling deep into Dimwood Forest in pursuit of salt, Ereth comes upon a dying mother fox, who begs him to take care of her three children. Agreeing, Ereth becomes foster father to three boisterous young fox kits. With Marty,...

After a long, hard winter in Dimwood forest, Poppy the deer mouse finds new adventure thrust upon her while rescuing Ereth the porcupine from the mud.