Stellaluna's mother is flying off one evening, when an owl sees her. The owl begins to attack by knocking Stellaluna out of her front pouch and onto a small twig. After falling further, she comes across a family of three baby birds in their nest. They notice her hanging upside-down, and choose to imitate her. However, when their mother comes back, she scolds Stellaluna for being a bad influence, and makes her do what her birds do, including eating bugs that she finds disgusting. Upon learning to fly, she ends up flying too far ahead for the others to catch up. She comes across several other fruit bats, laughing at the sight of her hanging from her thumbs. She finally reunites with her mother, and upon meeting the other birds again to show her family, with the story ending on the note that despite how different they are, they are very much indeed alike in other ways.

Stellaluna's mother is flying off one evening, when an owl sees her. The owl begins to attack by knocking Stellaluna out of her front pouch and onto a small twig. After falling further, she comes across a family of three baby birds in their nest. They notice her hanging upside-down, and choose to imitate her. However, when their mother comes back, she scolds Stellaluna for being a bad influence, and makes her do what her birds do, including eating bugs that she finds disgusting. Upon learning to fly, she ends up flying too far ahead for the others to catch up. She comes across several other fruit bats, laughing at the sight of her hanging from her thumbs. She finally reunites with her mother, and upon meeting the other birds again to show her family, with the story ending on the note that despite how different they are, they are very much indeed alike in other ways.