Unhappy about his parents splitting up and moving with his mother to Grandpa's farm, eleven-year-old Luke finds comfort in riding and caring for a horse named Beauty.
Liz tells her zoologist father he must get rid of all the homeless animals he keeps at their house or she'll never win the sixth-grade class presidency, but when they're gone she misses them and learns there are more important things than winning.
Ricky, afraid of dogs ever since being attacked by a rabid dog as a young child, allows compassion to overrule his fears when a starving, scruffy pup shows up at the farm.
After having his nose scratched by a cat, pecked by a bird, bitten by a dog, and stung by a bee, J.C. the bird dog develops his own method for pointing quail that protects his delicate sniffer.
