Aunt Chip saves the town of Triple Creek, where everyone has forgotten how to read because of the invasion of television.

Young Stella loves books so much, her books begin to take over the farmhouse. "Why, Stell, you need your own library to hold those books, " her pa tells her, so he and the neighbors build her one! She calls it "The Mermaid's Purse, " since the midwife said Stella was born in one. Stella opens the Purse to her neighbors and travels around the countryside, sharing her books door-to-door. Not everyone gives them a chance at first, like grouchy Pig Ears...