A young, aptly-named raccoon known as “Clumsy” is such a walking disaster area that the other animals in the forest can no longer stand having him around. They want to chase him out of the forest for good. Dismayed in the face of such injustice, Yakari and Little-Thunder decide to try and help. But in spite of all their efforts, the two friends have a hard time ridding Clumsy of his irksome flaw and end up falling victim to his destructive nature like everyone else. Eventually, thanks to some good advice from Rainbow and Great-Eagle, Yakari’s perseverance is rewarded, and he finds a surprising cure for the raccoon’s chronic clumsiness.

Rainbow has to cook her first pemmican for a celebration and she has no cherries to make it the way certain food-lovers in the tribe like it. Her dismay gives way to hope when she hears that there are ripe cherries out in the Black Hills, but then she learns that they are carefully guarded by a flock of vicious crows! Not one to back down in the face of danger, Rainbow ignores all the warnings and sets off in secret to go and get some. Yakari and Little-Thunder go after her and arrive just as the birds attack! They hide inside a cave but the crows are waiting for them outside. Fortunately, Yakari and Little-Thunder come up with a clever diversion and they manage to escape – but not for long! Soon, the angry crows catch up with them and they are only rescued at the last minute by a mother crow that Rainbow had helped as she came through the forest on her way there. In the end, Rainbow’s pemmican is delicious! Despite all the confusion, she somehow managed to make away with a small bag of cherries!

Buffalo-Seed will do anything to earn a feather for bravery like Yakari’s, and decides to reproduce a feat that Eyes-Always-Shot pulled off many years before, one that earned him the respect of the whole tribe: for three whole days and three whole nights, Eyes-Always-Shot walked in search of a lost mountain goat and brought it back to the Sioux camp to save a hungry baby who needed its milk! Yakari and Little-Thunder must face the dangers of the mountains to save the reckless Buffalo-Seed, but as Yakari can talk to animals, he enlists the help of a golden eagle and some wild goats. At the end of the adventure, we learn the identity of the starving baby that Eyes-Always-Shot saved: it’s none other than Buffalo-Seed!

In the horses’ enclosure, Yakari and his friends watch a foal being born. Rainbow decides to look after it, but then Yakari learns that the young mustang is going to be given to another tribe. Just then, the horses are attacked by a pack of starving wolves and the foal goes missing. To get him back, Yakari tracks the terrifying wolves and bravely confronts them. However, there is still no trace of the foal. When he returns home, Yakari discovers that the animal never left the camp: Rainbow has been hiding it in her tepee. In the end, touched by how attached his son is to the young mustang, Straight-Gaze decides to give away his own horse and keep the foal.

In the heat of summer, the river next to the Sioux camp suddenly and inexplicably dries up. The tribe is about to pull up camp, but Yakari doesn’t want to leave his animal friends, who are all dangerously thirsty. Our hero heads the dry river bed on Little-Thunder and, with advice from Great-Eagle, discovers that a herd of bison is behind this disaster.

As usual, Droopy-Ear puts his nose where it doesn’t belong and this time, he breaks the ceremonial peace pipe the shaman uses to ask the Great Spirit to bless the hunt. As his heart is pure, Yakari is the one the Elders chose to bring back a piece of traditional red stone (catlinite) from the sacred quarry to make a new bowl for the pipe. But the shaman warns him not to stop along the way so that he will be back in time for the ceremony that is set to take place in two days. During his journey, this causes a dilemma for Yakari, who has set off with his friend Little-Thunder, when he meets various animals who need him. Listening only to his heart, he helps them, and it is partially thanks to them that he is able to convince the bear guarding the entrance into the sacred quarry to let him in, with a little help from Little-Thunder – and Droopy-Ear – who has been secretly following them all along.