Chickie Jurin, a ten-year-old school misfit, wants to be the chicken expert of the world. When her family inherits a Montana ranch, she is thrilled to leave town and have a chicken coop she can call her own. Not everyone in her family is excited to live in the middle of nowhere, though.

"Mom stepped into the kitchen for a closer look. Her face fell. The stove was crammed with bubbling pots and spattered with grease. The kitchen was a disaster."

Chickie's career-minded mother and her siblings: know-it-all Kate, feather-pulling Tom, and perfect Steven, prefer life in town. Will gallons of Zamboozie Stew and the help of an eccentric sagebrush farmer convince her family that the ranch has space for everyone's dreams? Or, will Chickie's dream get smashed like an egg in a jean pocket?