Two pairs of partridges, Brovkins and Podkovkins, hatch by twelve chicks. Podkovkins get acquainted with the lark, and both the Brovkins family are killed by a falcon. Podkovkin's wife, the Orange Neck, decides to adopt chicks as their own. In the autumn, she brings twenty-four chicks to a meeting of partridges, and she is chosen as the main chicken.