Mr. Goose finds an abandoned egg, hatches it, and raises a peculiar green-skinned long-tailed chick, who worries about his identity but comes to recognize that he has a loving parent.
Drawings and brief text introduce the physical characteristics and habits of swans and wild geese, the largest North American waterfowl. Also discusses the need to protect them from extinction.
Against the backdrop of World War II, friendship develops between a lonely crippled painter and a village girl, when together they minister to an injured snow goose.