Gertrude is on the case! Henny Penny and Eggatha were very fat and good-looking chickens. Henny Penny disappeared last night. The hens decide to search the coop, but they can't find her! The next night Eggatha disappears, so the hens decide to lay in wait the next night. The roosters stayed awake too. Gertrude sat on the roost, trying to stay awake, but she fell asleep. At exactly midnight a white weasel slipped into the coop! The other hens gasped. They didn't want to be weasel food! The weasel grabbed Gertrude (who was still asleep), hoisted her onto his shoulder, and marched out of the coop.

Gertrude was awakened by the movement of being hoisted up, but she didn't completely wake up until the weasel tossed her into an old burlap sack in his cave. Suddenly Gertrude felt movement behind her. Henny Penny and Eggatha were in the sack, too.

When Gertrude peered through a hole, she saw the weasel lighting a fire in a hole in the ground. Sitting in the sack she planned their escape. She would sneak out of the sack, then as fast as she could she would find her way out of the cave, figure out how to catch the weasel, and come back to help Henny Penny and Eggatha (hopefully without getting caught).

So with her plan under control she snuck out of the sack and hurried down a winding passage until she came to the mouth of the cave. Taking out her handy-dandy spyglass she searched for anything the weasel could have used to find his way to the coop (because weasels are very forgetful). Finally she found some white string. She decided to roll it up into a ball and put it on her toe. That way it would roll off her toe wherever she went. She made the string go to a bear's cave, and then flew back to the cave. When she got back to the cave, she threw small stones at the weasel to chase him away. Finally he retreated.

Gertrude helped the two other captured hens out of the sack and led them down the winding passage. They flew back to the coop together. They were welcomed by the other hens that were surprised to see them back alive.

Gertrude, Henny Penny, and Eggatha told the other hens about their adventures, then all the hens fell safely asleep.