When a rainstorm prevents Nancy and her best friend, Robert, from getting to the planetarium the night of a class field trip, she has a brilliant idea for making things better.
Nancy is delighted that the new boy in her class is from Paris and sets out to become his friend, then discovers that this Parisian is not quite as fancy as she had thought.
Nancy is determined to make the cover of her very first book report as fancy as she can, but she spends so much time on it that she has no time to write about the book.
Nancy, who likes to use fancy words, is dismayed to be partnered with shy classmate Lionel for the school talent show until she comes up with an act perfectly suited for both of them.
A young girl who uses fancy words and considers herself practically a poison ivy expert learns a valuable (and itchy) lesson about the plant after picking a bouquet of wildflowers in her backyard.