After the old woman cuts off his tail when he steals her milk, the fox must go through a long series of transactions before she will sew it back on again.

Nonny Hogrogian is a two-time winner of the Caldecott Medal, first for Always Room for One More (1966), and second for One Fine Day (1972). She also received a Caldecott Honor for The Contest (1974). Her husband, poet David Kherdian, received a Newbery Honor for The Road from Home: The Story of an Armenian Girl (1979). They live in Florence, Massachusetts.