A riddle asking the reader to guess which animal is being described precedes information about different parts of a barn owl's body, how it behaves, and where it lives.
A basic introduction to barn owls, birds that stay awake at night, discussing what barn owls look like, where they live, what they eat, how they sound, and where they go during the day.
The author relates her experience raising a barn owl she had met while working at the owl laboratory at Caltech, discussing her relationship with the bird and what she observed and learned about the species.