Based on the real-life events that triggered the greatest mass extinction in modern history - the end of the passenger pigeon - Martha takes budding readers on a grand adventure through a magical world complete with mystic owls, tom-fooling mice and a little straw-haired boy who protects the last living passenger pigeon on the planet from the evil Patsy Brothers. Born with a bum leg, Martha is pushed out of her nest just minutes after her birth. It's all part of the Seven Cycles of Nature. But since the arrival of the Iron Horse, the Seven Cycles of Nature have been disrupted and the Great Owls know they need to do something to restore balance to their world. They decide to save Martha. Little do they know that Martha may one day, in her small way, save humanity.