This humorous realistic fiction story tells the adventures of young Ellen and the new girl in her school, Austine Allen.

The book opens when Ellen heads to her dance class at the studio run by the mother of a classmate, Otis Spofford, who is always teasing her.

When she arrives, she heads to change in a broom closet so the other girls cannot see her terrible secret: Ellen is wearing woolen underwear.

Both girls end up in tears and, after learning that Otis was the culprit in the lunch line and that both of their mothers made them wear their dreaded woolen underwear that day, they mend their friendship.

Children's Literature expert Anita Silvey calls Cleary's early books "pure, nostalgic Americana".