A community of birds live in an idyllic field until a momentous change threatens to upend their existence. Men come to their home and begins to tear out the wild fields of plants and of woods and replace them with strawberry fields. The men then begin to employ various means to drive the birds away. At each turn the protagonists (two sparrows, Bradley and Beth) are able to defeat the effort of the men. They do this by employing the strengths of other birds in the community. A magpie counsels the sparrows on how to handle a group of owls looking out over the field and restraining the birds from feeding, Secondly the sparrow Bradley hatches a plan to defeat a dog set out by men to chase birds away. they employ the strengths of mockingbirds and wrens to drive the dog out of the field and, lastly, they trick a Murder of Crows to collapse a net the men have set out to forbid the birds access to the ripening fruit. Murder of Crows is a recognized name for a group of crows, I think it's tremendous fun. The plot follows the two protagonists as they enlist the aid of larger and fiercer birds, sometimes with bribes and sometimes with trickery. A golden earring is central to their efforts and Beth's adventure to find the earring begins a story where the earring follows them through the story onto a plot twist at the end.