Delly Porter enjoys the feel of soft dirt beneath her feet as she walks to and from school, but after a classmate makes her feel ashamed of having no shoes she learns that her parents and others, too, see value in things that do not cost money.
Normally fearful to play basketball in front of a crowd, Kelly becomes a confident and aggressive player when she dons a mysterious pair of red sneakers that she finds.
Jeremy, who longs to have the black high tops that everyone at school seems to have but his grandmother cannot afford, is excited when he sees them for sale in a thrift shop and decides to buy them even though they are the wrong size.
As she tries to settle down for a nap, a mouse who lives in a shoe is visited first by Tortoise and Hare, then by Little Red Hen, and lastly by the Big Bad Wolf.