Longing for adventure, Jean Pierre Petite Le Rouge, a red squirrel, stows away in a voyageur canoe traveling from Montreal and across the Great Lakes to a trading post. The voyageurs are not particularly happy to have him on board. He rides, but doesn’t paddle. He eats but doesn’t cook. On the portages he doesn’t carry anything--it is he who is carried. Also, he has a terrible singing voice. What kind of voyageur is that? Fortunately, kind Jean Gentille, takes pity on him.
But when they finally arrive at the trading post little Le Rouge is in for a terrible shock—the voyageurs have traveled 1200 miles to collect what? Furs! Pelts! Skins! Feeling that he cannot betray his fellow fur-bearers this way he decides to give up his dream to become a voyageur. Unless, of course, he can find a way to change their minds.
