When Pete the parrot looks back on his seafaring family history—including his grandmother, Polly Pirate, and his grandfather, Paul Privateer—he decides to leave his cozy city home in search of the rugged puffin life on the coast. The puffins are friendly and welcome Pete with fish—which he doesn’t like to eat—and a swim in the ocean—which he doesn’t like to do—and they seem to do little more than sit on the rocks all day and night—which doesn’t interest him. Worst of all, they don’t seem to have much to say. Can Pete really live like a puffin, or is he just too different?