In ordinary Somerset County, a young farm girl named Fern rescues the runt of a litter of pigs from her father's ax. Fern names the pig Wilbur, takes care of him, and continues to visit him every day after he is moved to her Uncle Homer Zuckerman's barn across the road. But it's Wilbur's friendship with Charlotte the spider that ultimately saves him from the "smoke house" when Charlotte's talent for weaving praiseworthy words about Wilbur into her...

At the turn of the century, an immigrant's daughter inherits her family's Nebraska farm and her father's fierce love for the land. Fifteen years later she has made the family a fortune through her canny management of the farm, but has never forgotten the young man who left the prairie to seek his fortune.