No one in the town of Bonnyripple ever kept a grudge. No one, that is, except Cornelius, the Grudge Keeper. Ruffled feathers, petty snits, minor tiffs and major huffs, insults, umbrage, squabbles, dust-ups, and imbroglios--the Grudge Keeper received them all, large and small, tucking each one carefully away in his ramshackle cottage.

Gradually the grudges accumulate as Minnie Fletcher's goat eats Elvira Bogg's prizewinning petunias, Sylvester Quincy snags the schoolmaster's toupee, and Big Otto stomps on Lily Belle's feet during the spring fling.

One night the wind rises, flinging together the people and their grudges, scrambling the squabbles with the quibbles and piling the lows blows and the high dudgeon together. And where is Cornelius?