One spring morning in Appleshire when the daffodils, hyacinths and tulips are smiling sleepily, Francine Mouse sets out to deliver Scarlet Squirrel's birthday cake. Francine, wearing her new shoes dyed green by grasshoppers and tied up with the threads from spider's web, trips over a hamper, and her cake falls to the ground in a 'rain' of curvy currants, cheerful cherries and squishy sultanas. Francine begins to cry, and her tears fall through the ground to the tunnel where her friend, Mackintosh Mole, is making his way to buy a new jacket. Her tears become a shower for him to wash the dried-up mud from his neck. Mackintosh wants to help, and he has a magic book--a proper one that smells of bad eggs. Kind-hearted Mackintosh badly mistakes the list of ingredients, confusing for instance, the French word for eggs, 'oeufs' with 'earth'. What they create puts all their lives in danger. Through a thrilling sequence of mishaps, adventure and comedy, Francine, Mackintosh, and Victor Vole all work together to try and save Scarlet's party from disaster.