Life in Flora's home grows harder. Her mother, Phyllis, has decided that the squirrel must go. She treats Ulysses with open contempt and Flora's hopes with disdain, and behind closed doors she begins to plot against him. Flora, watching her mother's hostility grow, feels close to despair. The one thing keeping her steady is Ulysses himself — and the poems he types. For the squirrel has a gift. Whenever he feels love, especially his love for Flora, he climbs onto the typewriter and turns that feeling into verse. His poems are simple and astonishing — the heart of a wordless creature spoken aloud at last. They are a marvel, and slowly they begin to work a quiet magic on everyone who reads them. Flora is not as alone as she fears. Her gentle, anxious father takes her and Ulysses to the Giant Do-Nut shop and offers his grudging, growing support. The eccentric Dr. Meescham welcomes the squirrel without a moment's surprise. And William Spiver, full of wit and long words, is becoming a real friend. Against her mother's coldness, Flora is quietly gathering a small army of misfits — with a poetry-writing squirrel at the very centre of it.