When Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel, Mary Ann, lose their jobs to the gasoline, electric, and diesel motor shovels, they go to a little country town where they find that one new job leads to another.
To the surprise of many, the little country cottontail becomes one of the special Easter bunnies even though she has twenty-one children of her very own.
Each of the animals tells the hippopotamus she looks ridiculous for a different reason; but after a frightening dream, she is proud to be just what she is.