Alfredo is a bird, but he thinks he's a dog. His best friends are dogs, after all. He's scared of water and can't work out why people call him Polly. When he's kidnapped by some hapless humans who lose him to some slightly less hapless pirates, he not only makes a friend in the form of a piratical parrot but learns to accept his true nature. He learns to fly, befriends an eagle, plays Twister with a Kingfisher, has a roller-coaster ride through sewers and fantastic forest worlds, before landing back home with his human family.