Synopsis of the story
Spring has sprung in the farmyard. Drake and Ida, the mallards, await the arrival of their new brood, but the clutch seems to contain one inordinately large egg. When it hatches, its occupant’s ‘quack’ sounds more like a ‘honk’! Although taken aback, Ida quickly warms to his gentleness and discovers his prodigious athleticism. But his brothers and sisters mock him mercilessly and the only new friend he makes in the farmyard is the suspiciously friendly Cat, who invites him to ‘dinner’. Feeling completely alone and outcast, Ugly flees the farmyard. Ida, devastated, launches a search party.
Away from home, Ugly finds himself on open marshland in the middle of a duck shoot, but a flock of geese under the command of Greylag take him under their wing. The Cat catches up with them, but the geese refuse to let him out of their sight and Ugly escapes.
Ugly takes refuge in a cottage, home to Lowbutt and Queenie, a domesticated hen and her feline companion. When the Cat shows up, it looks like there is nowhere left to run, but then the Cat spies Queenie. The two cats become instantly besotted, and Ugly manages to escape once again. An encounter with a Bullfrog teaches him that he must accept himself because “out there, someone’s gonna love you, warts and all”.
With winter approaching, Ugly is further from home than ever. The search party and the Cat are still in pursuit. Finally, Ugly meets a beautiful young swan named Penny and falls in love. She invites him to migrate, but still desperate to find Ida, he declines.
Somehow he survives the bleak winter and, in spring, the returning swans guide Ida to her long-lost ‘son’ for a reunion and triumphant return to the farmyard. The Cat, just beginning to thaw, has probably learned his lesson.