Clancy misses his old school. He wonders what first grade is like back in the city where he used to live. As he recalls all the differences, the willow tree beckons him and his sister on an adventure. They land on Chincoteague Island off the coast of Virginia, where a group of wild ponies imagine what life would be like back in the land where their great grandparents once lived. They all discover that life is really quite good just where they are.