From her modest home surrounded by great old trees in the small river town of Ophelia, Indiana, Birdie hears the language of the birds and believes they are talking to her. Whatever they are trying to communicate increases in intensity over her life. Born in 1900, for many years she works in the local telephone exchange and so is privy to conversations—and secrets—in Ophelia. But when she says the birds have told her something, the townspeople do not believe her; they just assume she misheard someone's phone conversation.

Despite the birds' efforts, Birdie is unable to move beyond what she calls her "forever day"—the last happy day she experienced as a child before a devastating trauma. The suppressed memory of that trauma slowly reveals itself again to her, with the birds' help. She learns that she can't fully understand what they are saying until she can move forward from her forever day, but she is too terrified to do so. In her later years she tries to retain a place in her childhood, even as she observes herself growing into an eccentric and increasingly delusional old age. The birds constantly press her to challenge her visions and accept their messages as real. Near the end of the 20th century, and of her own life, she is finally able to understand the birds, but is unable to warn the world about what they are telling her.