What is an individual's responsibility to nature? Does our desire to understand the world give us the right to dominate plant and animal life? Should human relationships take precedence over relationships with other species? Is there any way for humans to co-exist with nature, or must we trample, dissect, or attempt to control it?

Sylvia, a shy child, 'afraid of folks', is taken in and reared by her grandmother to spare her from the hustle-and-bustle of late 19th-century urban, industrial life. A friend to birds and animals, it is only when she is befriended by a young male ornithologist that Sylvia comes head on with conflicts over value systems and loyalties. The resolution of this dilemma is skillfully wrought, revealing the complexity of the decision making-process and the ethical conundrum that will save, or destroy, the earth.