"Porcupine is having a picnic! As more animals arrive, each of them eats something different. But then Tiger shows up. Uh-oh! Back matter offers further information about herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores"- -
When their home next to a brook is destroyed by beavers, a large family of golden mice is aided by Poppy the deer mouse and her grumpy porcupine friend, who in the process forges a relationship with the son he had abandoned.
Sweet-natured Adeline Porcupine is feeling a little left out because all the other animals are cautious because of her sharp quills--but with a little help from Arnie Armadillo she joins in the play and makes friends.
Butterfly wakes up while Porcupine is having breakfast, and Porcupine tries to explain what it means to be nocturnal and Butterfly considers the advantages of a nighttime life while trying to get back to sleep.
Poppy, accompanied by her troublesome son Junior, his skunk friend, and Uncle Ereth the porcupine, responds to a summons to return to her ancestral home, Gray House, to save the mice there from destruction by a bulldozer.